Fred VanVleet, guard of the Toronto Raptors, has been selected as a reserve for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
He was voted in for the first time in his career by a panel of the NBA’s 30 head coaches.
VanVleet is the eighth player in Raptors franchise history to be named an all-star and only the fourth undefeated player in the NBA’s modern era to be selected for the prestigious mid-season exhibition.
The game takes place on Feb. 20 in Cleveland. A draft will be held on February 10, when VanVleet will learn whether he will play for team Kevin Durant or team LeBron James. The two superstar forwards were unveiled as the top scorers in the Eastern and Western Conferences last week and team captains nominated for the all-star game.
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VanVleet (27) was played in the middle of his best season as a professional, with an average career highs in points (21.5), assists (7.0), bounce (4.7) and minutes (38, 6) per game, as he helped the Raptors to a 26. -23 record.
He is the first Raptor to be selected for the star contest since Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry were selected in 2020.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said Thursday he saw echoes of Lowry’s play early in VanVleet’s career.
“I think in that first year or two I only saw real similarities with Kyle,” Nurse said. “I have said many times, ‘Why can he not be Kyle Lowry?’ “(A player) who goes to the all-star game over and over again. I do not know if I thought he was an all-star, but I saw a similar player there.”
VanVleet, a native of Rockford, Ill., Did not draft in 2016, despite enjoying a strong four-year collegiate career at Wichita State. He signed with the Raptors’ Summer League team in 2016 and earned a multi-year contract with Toronto.
In 2019, VanVleet helped the Raptors win the NBA Championship.
In November 2020, he signed a four-year, $ 85 million, contract with Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 3, 2022.
© 2022 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca