He is an inspirational representative of the NBA, from a lost draft to an All-Star; he is the first person in his son buff, who immediately played an extraordinary performance after his son was born; he was frequently ridiculed by people, but now the ridicule has become prestige. He's Van Jordan, Van Vleet.
Like most NBA stars, VanVleet's childhood wasn't so happy. His father was shot when he was 5 years old, and his subsequent stepfather was very harsh on him. However, it is also because of his stepfather's strictness that he fell in love with the sport of basketball.
A few years later, VanVleet had become a well-known basketball prodigy and received a scholarship to Wichita State University for good performance. In his four-year college career, he averaged 26.8 minutes per game, scoring 10.2 points, 4.5 assists and 1.6 steals. Such data is indeed excellent in its team, but if you look at the whole country, it is a bit insufficient.
Without the blessing of a college career, nor the physical fitness far beyond ordinary people, coupled with his unopposed height (183cm), in this way, VanVleet, who participated in the NBA draft, was defeated. For such a small player, no team dares to make a bold choice.
But fortunately, there are always some exceptions to everything. Not long after losing the election, the Raptors came to the door. Although the Raptors came to recruit VanVleet, they were still suspicious of the small guard, so they only gave an unsecured contract. Whether there will be a change after that depends on his performance in the summer league.
In the summer league, VanVleet was a hit and performed very well. The Raptors are also happy to see the hunter, so they decided to keep him in the team and continue to investigate. This hard-won opportunity, VanVleet, seized, though, that the contract was only $720,000 for two years.
In his first year in the league, VanVleet didn't get a good chance, with four quarters in one game and three and a half quarters on the bench. VanVleet wanted a chance, a chance that would allow him to make a name for himself in one battle. But before that, he needs to hone his skills first. He started training harder, training his defense, training his three-pointers.
Unconsciously, VanVleet's performance is getting better and better, and the playing time is also increasing. He averaged from 2.9 to 11 points per game and averaged 7.9 minutes to 27.5 minutes per game. Although the progress is great, VanVleet is not satisfied, and he feels that he still has a lot of room for improvement. At the same time, he also felt that the opportunity that would make him famous in the first battle had not yet arrived.
Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it came to 19 years, when the Raptors rose sharply because of the addition of small cards, and successfully entered the Eastern Finals. Facing the menacing Bucks, the Raptors fought extremely hard. After the first three games, the Raptors fell behind 1-2, and the win was still won by double overtime.
In these games, VanVleet's performance was a disaster, G1 2 points, G2 5 points, G3 3 points. The same was true of the last round against the 76ers, averaging just 2 points in 16.7 minutes of playing time per game. I thought that VanVleet's bad performance would continue forever, but who knows, he suddenly seemed to have changed into a person.
In G4, he shot 5 of 6 and scored 13 points and 6 assists; in G5, he shot 7 of 13 and scored 21 points; in G6, he shot 5 of 6 and cut 14 points and 2 assists. VanVleet's sudden surge directly allowed the Raptors to lock in the victory, and finally eliminated the Bucks 4-2 and advanced to the Finals.
And all this is because of the birth of VanVleet's son. Perhaps with the buff bonus of his son, VanVleet believes that the opportunity he has been waiting for has arrived, and it is time to become famous in a war. In fact, he did become famous in the first battle. Presumably the Bucks would not have imagined that the series would be changed because of VanVleet's son.
In the Finals, VanVleet continued his previous outstanding performance, scoring one difficult goal after another, and G6 scored 22 points to defeat the Warriors and successfully win the championship. It is precisely because of his magical performance in the finals that his title of "Van Jordan" has changed its taste. It turned out that "Fan Jordan" was to ridicule him for not having Jordan's strength, but playing like Jordan, no matter what the situation, dared to shoot (the actual shooting rate is not high), but now, "Fan Jordan" has really become "Fan Jordan".
Since then, he has improved, averaging 17.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists in 19-20 and 19.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game in 20-21. This season, he reached a career best in various statistics, averaging 21.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 7 assists per game, and successfully selected as an All-Star. After the departure of Little Card and Lowry, when Siakam could not pick up the team beam, it was also he who stepped forward.
At this time, perhaps many people have forgotten his identity as a loser. After all, no one could have imagined that a failed draft would be an All-Star a few years later, sign a four-year, $85 million contract, and become the leader of a team. But vanVleet did.
VanVleet's counterattack road has not stopped, and I hope he can play better in future games.