“He said it from day one, ‘I’m not staying here.'”: 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 if he felt any kind of way about Kawhi Leonard leaving Toronto after they had just won the NBA championship, VanVleet said:

“No. And the only reason why is because he did what he came to do. And he said it from day one. “I’m not staying here”. From day one, “I don’t know why they traded for me. I don’t want to be here. I’m not staying here.” Now Toronto put their best bid in, man. The city bowed down like we’ve never seen before, man. You know what I’m saying? And so yes, as for us regular people, we can look at it and say, man, how could you leave that? You know what I’m saying?

But his mind was made up, man. Kawhi is Kawhi. I thank him eternally for helping us win a championship and carrying us to a moment to where I could be solidified and go on to make a ton of money and we are forever indebted to him for that. But yes, you could look back and say, “Oh, we wish he would have did this. We wish he would have did that.” But I’m just thankful that we got got the job done. You know what I’m saying? He changed a lot of people’s lives.“

VanVleet also spoke about how a lot of the younger Raptors looked to Leonard as a source of confidence, specifically when it was rumoured that Kevin Durant may return for game five of the 2019 NBA finals:

“We were like dominating these guys. And so him coming back was like a ace in the hole for them that would just like equalize everything. And so all the way leading up to that day, it was just the story like, is he going to play? And so I remember the conversation leading all the way up to the game. And then when we were just kind of waiting to see how Kawhi was going to react cuz whatever he do, we following him because he the one that got to deal with him…. So he was, ‘Whi was locked the fuck in. He was locked in. So we was like, “All right, cool. He ain’t tripping. We ain’t tripping.” You know what I’m saying? And this is the young guys, by the way. I’m only ever speaking for like me, Norm, and P. Like we had our own thing. Kyle and them was kind of doing their own thing.

Towards the end of the podcast, VanVleet was asked about how many more championships Toronto could have won if Kawhi did stay?

“Yeah, at least one. At least one. You never know how things shake out, but like we were in such a great position. There there was two things that happened was like he left and we were all like, damn, bro. Like this team is so good. We were so good without him, right? And so just having him was the ace card in the playoffs that we knew we needed. And that’s all we really needed him for. And all he needed us for was to handle the regular season. So it was a perfect match. “

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