“… As the starting point guard, it’s my job to take the bullets.”: VanVleet to Hello and Welcome

On Monday’s edition of Hello and Welcome, hosts Will Lou and Alex Wong had the opportunity to interview former Raptor All-Star, NBA Champion, and NBA Finals MVP vote recipient Fred VanVleet. I highly recommend anyone who hasn’t yet watched or listened to do so. VanVleet provides an incredibly candid interview on his departure from Toronto as well as the championship season.

When asked about his final season with the Raptors, VanVleet spoke on how things aren’t always as they seem:

“ … And it’s just like ‘Freddy don’t pass the ball. He’s selfish and he’s trying to get paid’. That’s what it boiled down to. And I’m just sitting there like, “All right, fuck it.” You know what I’m saying? And it is what it is.

And in a vacuum, me, Pascal, OG, Scottie, Jakob and Gary Trent and with some young guys, Precious and like that’s in the East. Shit that’s a top four team. You know what I’m saying? But like you underperform. There’s so much more to the game than just the paper. And you got to have the right vibe. The culture is everything. Your habits on a daily basis. And the business and the management also plays a huge factor, especially in today’s world. So I just think that that shit was kind of unraveling as we were going.

And as fans, you’re watching the game and you’re following the the commentary as it goes and it’s like that’s where your focus is. But a lot of times it’s a lot of shit going on behind the scenes that people don’t know about. And as the starting point guard, it’s my job to take the bullets. It’s not my job to stand up and say, “Well, this is what’s actually going on.”“

Later when speaking on facing criticism from segments of the fan base before his departure VanVleet had this to say:

I’ll start with the first part was that I felt like the team wasn’t fucking with me first. So it wasn’t like yeah, the fans going to say whatever they going to say, but I feel like if we had a great vibe and chemistry with our team then that would have been empty noise, but it’s like I feel that when I come to work every day and then it’s that from the fan base it’s like okay cool maybe it’s just my time to roll out. You know what I’m saying? So, as you go, you get in your own [head] and some of that could have been just me over analyzing the situation, which is totally fair.

But I think losing brings out the worst in everybody. And I said that before, whether that’s me, whether that’s coach, whether that’s another player, the fans, like nobody wants to lose. It’s all fun, and champagne, and everything when we’re winning and we’re winning championships. So, I’ll just attribute it to that, man. And I I think that our fan base drastically grew after we won a championship, especially online and … the NBA has turned into every player has their own stan club, right? You got a rock and roll band and like “I love the guitarist”. “Well, I love the lead vocalist” or like what just happened to loving the team?

Maybe good for business, but like online it’s like does my love for this player supersede the love for like this team succeeding, right? And I think that it it kind of became divided a little bit. Which is totally normal. And I feel like you guys [Raptors] being good again is going to bring back the good, because [Toronto] one of the most incredible fan bases and sports cities in the world…”

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