Raptors ready for Florida grind: VanVleet
Fred VanVleet has been back to work for over a week and he can sum up the experience in one word.
“Different,” VanVleet said. “I think that is the word I will keep using. It’s just different from the norm, from what we are used to.”
VanVleet was one of the first Raptors to arrive in Florida for a two-week stay in Fort Myers before the Raptors head north to Orlando to enter the NBA campus. If all goes well, that could amount to another 100-day stay.
For now, the Raptors have taken over a hotel that had been closed and was just re-opening. It means they have the entire compound to themselves, which is really the only way anyone would want it in the state of Florida right now.
The coronavirus remains rampant in the sunny state, but it’s also home to Disney, where the NBA believes it can do the best job of keeping players, staff, and employees safest within the campus or bubble inside Walt Disney World.
Obviously, there are no guarantees how safe anyone will be, and each player had to make his own decision.
For VanVleet, it was a matter of deciding to trust both the league and his organization that he would be protected. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t concerned.
“It sounded good a month or two ago, not so much right before we got ready to leave,” he said.
“I think, for the most part, I just put the trust in the organization and understand that I don’t think they would put us in extreme risk, trust the NBA. That’s where my trust lies right now. Hopefully they prove me right and not wrong … I’m trying to be optimistic about it. It’s not the most ideal situation but it’s kind of the times we are in. It hasn’t been an ideal for anyone.”
VanVleet fully understands those players that have opted out of the opportunity to resume play this summer. Some have done so for health concerns.
Others over the concern that the fight against racial injustice needs their attention now.
VanVleet sees that battle as a long term one and one he is fighting even now as he awaits the opening of the NBA campus at Disney in the south of Florida.
VanVleet is very up front about his reasons for playing. He did not make this decision lightly.
“It sucks,” he said of having to choose between focussing on the racial injustice issue and his career. “It’s terrible timing. But that’s been 2020 for us. We all know the right thing to do is to not play, to take a stand. Morally, yes, that makes sense. But life goes on. We’re all young, Black guys. None of us want to give any money back. I don’t think that we should. I think that money can be used in a number of different ways. This is not going to end this summer regardless, or over the next couple of months. This issue, racial injustice, social injustice, police brutality, all these things are not ending anytime soon. Our fight was long term. That was part of my decision. But if the league, or more of my guys would have come together and said we didn’t want to play, I would have sat out as well. I wouldn’t have even fought it. I think most of us decided to play. It’s something we’ll have to live with. I trust that my heart’s in the right place and I’m doing enough to make change.”
His days right now are pretty regimented. Up early for an early morning workout but not before his COVID test and all his vitals are tested. Then the workout and then back to the hotel to eat, take a nap and get treatment. After that, the rest of the day is his to do as he pleases - as long as he stays in the hotel. Freedom is non-existent, he half jokes. Whatever freedom he does have right now will likely be further curtailed when he enters the NBA campus on July 9, but he anticipates that and is fine with it.
The Raptors will head into the bubble the No. 2 seed in the East and facing the toughest eight-game seeding schedule of any team in Orlando. VanVleet, nevertheless, likes his team’s chances.