Remembering When Fred VanVleet Threw Himself A Draft Party, Got Wasted And Had To Go On Stage To Tell Everyone He Wasn't Getting Picked
Fred VanVleet just got paid $85 MILLION. Awesome, great for him. Yeah, I wanted him to be a Knick, but that's a pretty hefty price to pay for a guy that shouldn't be your best player and fits the Raptors perfectly. That said, a little weird now looking at the Draft and seeing them take Malachi Flynn. Sure, there's depth at the guard spot now. But every comparison he had was to FVV.
That's not the point though. It's the fact this is making the rounds again and is one of my favorite videos and stories out there.
FVV threw himself a draft party - a normal thing to do. Some thought he may go in the 2nd round after being a star at Wichita State. We all know what happened. He told teams not to take him because he wanted the option to go where he thought he would fit the best. He didn't want to just immediately be a D-League player like he's talking about there.
But it's even better than that. The dude got WASTED at his draft party. Hard to blame him.
This is when VanVleet made one of the most difficult, counterintuitive decisions of his life: He told NBA teams not to draft him. Then he spent the rest of the night doing what he would have done otherwise. “I got wasted,” he said.
So shout out Fred man. Yeah I always get a soft spot in my heart for college stars like this that just work their ass off and get money. Plus any time I can talk about a dude getting shithoused at his draft night party while telling teams to not draft him, I'm gonna do it. $85 million is a nice chunk of change.
Oh and A+ tweet
