Photo Credit: Frank Gunn/CP

Fred VanVleet’s Amazing Speech After Going Undrafted in 2016

The worst thing that can happen to a college player with hopes to make it into the NBA, is to declare for the draft and then not get selected.

On draft night, we almost exclusively talk about the 60 (mostly) happy players who did make it, but not about the many (24 players this year) who had been denied of their dream. Sometimes though, those undrafted players make it into the NBA nonetheless.

Take Fred VanVleet for example, who was a key factor in the Raptors’ championship run this season. Fred was not selected in the 2016 NBA draft. He then agreed to play in the 2016 NBA Summer League with the Toronto Raptors with the expectation that he would be in the Raptors’ training camp. His summer league contract had a guarantee of three game appearances. VanVleet was able to impress, and on July 18, 2016, he signed a multi-year deal with the Raptors. The rest is history.

Before this year’s draft, a video of VanVleet had surfaced that shows him getting up in front of everyone at his draft party to tell them he didn’t get drafted. He handled the situation incredibly well.

“My story don’t end here. It’s just the beginning. It wouldn’t really make sense for my story if I did get picked. I’ve been against the odds my whole life. It’s not gone stop now.”