The 2020 - 2021 NBA season has been lackluster for the Toronto Raptors. After the Raptors were not given permission by the Canadian government to host games at the Scotiabank arena, they were forced to pack their bags and move the team's operations to Tampa Bay. This drastic change in location, in addition to the team losing centers Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka to free agency, resulted in the Raptors resembling as a shell of their former selves. Although the team has begun to recover from the their atrocious 2-8 start to the season, they still hardly resemble the resilient team from last year that shocked everybody and was a few possessions away away from reaching the Easter Conference Finals despite the departure of superstar Kawhi Leonard. There was just a missing wow -factor that the team from last year had.
That wow-factor showed up on Tuesday night in Orlando.
The beginning of the game wasn't pretty for the Raptors. The Orlando Magic began the game on an 11-0 run and the Raptors were once again going through a scoring drought, something that has been their Achilles heal all season long. Nevertheless, the scoring drought for the Raptors ended when coach Nick Nurse drew up an out of bounds play for Fred VanVleet. Pascal Siakam set the pin-down screen resulting in a wide open wing three for VanVleet and the ball swished straight through the net. The Raptors were relieved to finally put points up on the board, little did they know that it was the just start of a night that would go down in the history books.
“I knew after my first shot went in that I was going to shoot the ball well,” VanVleet told reporters after the game.
Soon after, that one three-pointer, turned into two, and then three, and then so on. Before you knew it, you looked up at the box score and Fred VanVleet had 28 points on 8-9 shooting from three....at halftime.
The performance only got better for VanVleet. He scored in every way imaginable, getting open looks off of paint penetration, moving of the ball, coming off pin-down screens. He shot them out of dribble handoffs and pick and rolls. Later in the game he leveraged his red-hot shooting to punish Orlando's defenders for aggressive close-outs by attacking the rim and finishing strong. He even let a few fly from near the hash, because it didn't matter what type of shot he put up, everything just seemingly swished straight through the net.
At the end of the night, Fred VanVleet finished with 54 points, breaking the Raptors franchise record for points in a game, a record that was previously held by the Raptor's all-time leading scorer, DeMar DeRozan.
DeMar took to twitter to express his joy for VanVleet, tweeting : "Congrats to my brotha Freddy V! Kyle old ass couldn’t do it. Glad you did champ! Been telling you!"
But the breaking of records didn't stop there, VanVleet's 54 points also set the new record for points in a game by an undrafted player, breaking the great Moses Malone's record of 53.
Gamescore is an advanced metric that takes into account factors such as points, rebounds, assists, efficiency, etc., and converts them into one numerical value to quantify the greatest single-game performances of all-time. For example, Michael Jordan's 69 point game and Kobe Bryant's 81 point game are the highest scoring single-game performances. When it was all over, the kid from Rockford ,Illinois held the title for the 22nd best basketball game anybody has ever played in the history of basketball!
But Fred VanVleet was never supposed to be in this position, he was told he was too small, not athletic enough, not talented enough. So how did VanVleet get to where he is?
VanVleet was a four-year college player at Wichita State and during his time in college he was never seen as anything special. Despite the success oh his team, VanVleet only averaged 12.2 points per game in his senior year.
After leaving Wichita State, VanVleet decided to enter the NBA draft. On draft night, VanVleet held a party to celebrate his name being called on the world stage. Unfortunately for him, that time never came, VanVleet went undrafted. Despite his disappointment, VanVleet didn't hang his head, he assured his friends and family that this would not be the end of his basketball journey. He took to twitter that night in 2016 and tweeted the phrase that would embody him for years to come, "Bet on Yourself."
VanVleet then went on to sign with the Raptors summer league team, and his gamble paid off, earning him a multi-year contract with team. VanVleet would spend a majority of his first year in the D-league with the Raptors 905, a season which ended with him winning a D-league championship alongside his fellow rookie Pascal Siakam.
His performance in the D-league earned him a rotation role and a two-year, $18 million contract in 2018. The next year would see VanVleet make substantial improvements in all areas of his game. His hard work would be validated by noteworthy performances in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Bucks and his remarkably clutch fourth quarter performance in the closeout game of the 2019 Finals. He even received a vote for Finals MVP, ranking second only behind the rightful winner, Kawhi Leonard.
Last season saw VanVleet evolve into a bona fide starting backcourt partner to Kyle Lowry and one of the leaders on a team that was on pace for 60 wins. His performance in combination with the lack of elite talent in the 2020 free agency class, VanVleet became one of the leagues most valued free agents, resulting in him earning a four-year, $85 million contract from the Raptors.
But even after securing life changing wealth, VanVleet didn't stop doing the one thing that put him in this position to begin with, outworking the people who are more talented than him. VanVleet came into this season ready to shoulder a bigger role in the offense and so far this season he is one of just 13 players in the league averaging 20-6-4 and could be selected as a first-time all-star.
Fred VanVleet's journey to the top is the epitome of a cinderella story. Merely 5 years ago, nobody knew who Fred VanVleet was. He wasn't the tallest, he wasn't the fastest, he couldn't jump the highest, but he believed in himself when nobody else did. He bet on himself every step of the way, and now he is the cornerstone of one of the respected franchises in the league.
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