TORONTO — He started his remarkable journey alone in a hotel room in a new city and a new country, trying to do what no one expected was possible except him.
And in those moments Fred VanVleet would close his eyes and hope that others would see what he believed he could be.
“In training camp as an undrafted rookie… [I remember] just literally being on my knees praying before I went to bed to make the team, like every night,” said VanVleet, one of the most unlikely all-stars in NBA history. “[I was] just pouring out everything I got during practice and workouts and things like that and just praying that somebody was seeing it.
“It’s not really about praying that I’ve done my job, it’s more so for the recognition because I’ve always believed in myself but you know, I’ve never had someone else believe in me like this… that moment right there is something I circle back to as a positive memory for me because I’m a man of faith and just having those times where you’re by yourself and you gotta get through those situations — everything comes full circle.”
VanVleet got through it.
“I had a pretty good first day of camp,” he said of his rookie year in 2016-17 when he didn’t have a contract and was in a crowd, battling for the 15th spot on the Raptors roster.
“[But] you never know what they’re looking for, I wasn’t even sure we needed a point guard at that time but some of these things are just written before you even go out there.”
The storybook keeps getting better.
On Thursday night when VanVleet learned he had become just the fourth undrafted player — and the first point guard — in NBA history to become an all-star, he wasn’t alone.
He heard it first from the crowd — even if there were just 500 people allowed in Scotiabank Arena, they were able to share the news. They chanted his name.
“They were loud, and you could hear every conversation that’s going on,’” said VanVleet. “So, somebody started screaming right before the anthem or something like that, and that was it.”
He was instantly surrounded by his teammates and then embraced by Chicago Bulls All-Star DeMar DeRozan, one of the veterans that helped VanVleet find his way early in his career. Not that it took too much. VanVleet was a quick learner.
That first day of training camp? He went right at Kyle Lowry, then the Raptors’ all-star point guard, opening eyes and getting noticed.
“I think the first play he baited me into a foul like he used to before they changed the rule, a little grab foul,” said VanVleet. “I come down and score, he scored, I scored, he scored, I scored — it was like a couple of those in a row and you could kinda see everybody in the gym like, ‘OK, this kid can play a little bit,’ and it was on from there.”
VanVleet and DeRozan duelled a little bit on Thursday night — there was after all a game that interrupted the brief pre-tip All-Star celebration.
“’Don’t spoil the night, don’t spoil the night,’” joked VanVleet. “I thought we played extremely hard.”
The Raptors emerged as 127-120 winners in overtime over the Bulls. In a close contest a long three and a long two by VanVleet seemed to split things open as the Raptors went up eight with 4:35 left in the fourth quarter. DeRozan helped the Bulls come back and force overtime with a quick six-point burst and added two more quick buckets early in the extra period. But a pair of threes by OG Anunoby in overtime helped blunt the Bulls’ momentum before VanVleet whipped a cross-court pass on a rope to a wide-open Gary Trent Jr. who cashed it from three for the difference-making blow with 16.5 seconds left.
The win was the Raptors’ fourth straight, improved their record to 27-23 and lifted them into seventh place in the tightly packed Eastern Conference. They finish a difficult stretch of five games in seven nights Friday against Atlanta. The Bulls dropped to 32-19 and into a tie with Miami for first place in the East.
VanVleet had 21 points and nine assists on his big night, while Pascal Siakam — who could easily have been named an all-star with the way he’s been playing since early December — added 25 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Anunoby, Scottie Barnes and Trent Jr. all had 21. Chris Boucher had 16 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for Toronto who took 23 more shots than the Bulls thanks to a 22-12 edge in offensive rebounds and a 17-10 advantage in turnovers.
The Bulls got 28 points, six rebounds and seven assists from DeRozan, while Nikola Vucevic had 30 points and 18 rebounds.
But it was VanVleet’s night. He was one of seven Eastern Conference reserves voted on by the league’s coaches, joining the five starters voted in by fans, media and players announced last week.
It’s the ultimate respect.
“That’s what I play for,” he said. “I never sought out to be a fan favourite, certainly respect and admire the passion and obviously the fans are a large part of what we do in this business, but I always sought out to be respected by my peers first and foremost and the coaches right after that.
“That one would have stung a little bit (to be passed over by the coaches) considering the season that I’ve had if they didn’t pick me but… it definitely means a little bit more coming from them.”
VanVleet’s journey never gets old. In the retelling: the underdog kid from Rockford, the small city west of Chicago that is no place for the meek. Raised in a blended family after his father died when he was five. Overlooked and underestimated and yet eventually triumphant, at every level.
Each new chapter builds the legend.
Even after training camp the rewards came slowly for the seventh Raptors’ all-star. He played 26 seconds in the first 16 games of his career and didn’t get a bucket until the 19th. His first start came in his third season, and he didn’t become a starter until this fourth. Two years later he’s part of the league’s elite.
The message is simple: Believe in yourself first and don’t waver. It’s easy to say, and it makes for a cool slogan — “Bet on Yourself” has been VanVleet’s — but it’s hard to live it day by day.
But when you do start from that premise and you’re willing to commit to an endless project of self-improvement on the simple belief that good things will happen, oh the places you can go.
Now VanVleet is going to Cleveland — “Big Rockford,” he jokes — as an NBA all-star.
“These are just dreams and goals that you have as a kid and you put them on a wall, and you aim high, and you hope for the best,” he said. “Sometimes you land on them, sometimes you don’t, it’s not always pretty, it’s not always easy, but I’m just blessed to be a part of the conversation and it’s just the beginning for me in year six.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
