On Tuesday night, Raptors guard Fred VanVleet broke Toronto’s franchise record for points in a game by scoring a career-high 54 points in a single game. In the process of doing so, he passed some other local legends — namely DeMar DeRozan 52-point New Year’s Day game from 2018, along with Terrence Ross and Vince Carter’s 51-point explosions prior.
That’s right, the kid from Rockford, Illinois proved once again that betting on yourself can earn great respect in the long run. But it didn’t start out that way. The road to success was a long and winding one for VanVleet.