Fredderick Edmund VanVleet Sr. is an American basketball player who plays point guard for the Toronto Raptors in the National Basketball Association. VanVleet had a successful collegiate career and followed that up by carving out a valuable role in the pros, winning an NBA championship early in his professional career.
Fred VanVleet played high school basketball at Auburn in Rockford, Illinois. VanVleet helped Auburn finish third in the state’s high school basketball tournament as a senior, and elected to remain with his Rockford AAU team instead of fleeing for a more prestigious AAU program in nearby Chicago. He was not a highly touted recruit, ranked in the lower end of the top-100 of his class by ESPN and other recruiting analysts. He received scholarship offers from mid-major programs such as Detroit, Colorado State and Wichita State.
VanVleet had a decorated four-year career in college with the Wichita State Shockers. It was highlighted by a sophomore year in which the team went 31-0 in the regular season en route to a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. While the team lost in the second round of the tournament to Kentucky, they went down in history as one of the best mid-major teams in the history of college basketball after a 35-1 season.
VanVleet stuck around for the remainder of his two years of eligibility, being named as an honorable mention all-American team in his junior season. Injuries hampered VanVleet in his senior season, and the Shockers never reached the heights that they did in his sophomore season, though they did reach the Sweet Sixteen in 2015.
Fred VanVleet went undrafted, after not wanting to sign a two-year developmental deal as a second round pick. He was picked up as a free agent by the Toronto Raptors following the 2016 NBA Draft. In his rookie year, VanVleet was sent to the D-League to play for Raptors 905 on multiple occasions, and helped the team to win the championship in the D-League playoffs in his first year. With a crowded roster that included Kyle Lowry and Delon Wright, VanVleet needed to prove himself in the D-League before spending more time in the NBA. He did make his NBA debut against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016.
In his second season, VanVleet made more of an impact in the NBA, being named as a nominee for the NBA’s sixth man of the year award as a part of a Raptors second unit that made substantial impacts on games regularly along with players like Norman Powell. But VanVleet’s impacts were really felt in the 2018-2019 season, when the Raptors ran through the postseason and defeated the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors en route to the team winning the NBA Championship for the first time.
The season stats for VanVleet weren’t incredible during the Raptors’ championship season. He averaged 11 points per game for the year. But VanVleet stepped up in a number of big spots during the Finals especially, as his experience in big games made him a steady hand against one of the league’s all-time great dynasties, with the Raptors joining the Cavaliers as teams that beat the Warriors in the Finals.
Fred VanVleet signed a two-year, $18 million deal with the Toronto Raptors in 2018. VanVleet has made around $19 million in career earnings to this point in his NBA career. He is in the final year of his contract in the 2019-2020 season. He has signed endorsement deals with American Express, And1, along with multiple Canadian companies as he plays for the lone Canadian team in the NBA.
It is expected that VanVleet will enjoy a more lucrative contract after the 2020 season concludes, with his ability to fill in as a role player off the bench on the biggest stage being valuable to any team in the league.
Fred VanVleet was born in Rockford, Illinois to Fred Manning and Susan VanVleet, along with his brother Darnell. VanVleet is in a relationship with Shontai Neal, and they have two children together. They have a son named Fred Jr., as well as a daughter named Sanaa.
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