In this episode of The Draymond Green Show, host Draymond Green interviews Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet about the iconic Kawhi Leonard buzzer‑beater against the Philadelphia 76ers during the 2019 Eastern Conference Finals. VanVleet describes his unique bench angle, initially seeing the shot drift left before it bounced in, and recounts the surge of emotion that gave him renewed confidence for the remainder of the series. The conversation then shifts to the personal pressure VanVleet faced at that stage of his career—concerns over his upcoming contract, the need to prove himself as a starting point guard, and the intense scrutiny from Toronto fans and media. He reflects on how that moment and the surrounding criticism shaped his mindset and motivation heading into subsequent playoff rounds.
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What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to The Volume's YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. And speaking of Philly and that team, I've watched that shot over a million times. In part due to, I feel like if that shot didn't go in, we wouldn't win the NBA championship, but it is what it is. So I've gone back and watched that shot and you were actually on the bench when that shot happened, which is crazy. Because if you think about that Finals run and the run that y'all had to go on and win a championship, one wouldn't be able to see you not being in the game at the end of the game at any point in that run. But it kind of just goes to show what you were saying about your rotations. But you're like right in the corner of Kawhi's shot. With your angle, what were you thinking on that play? Because I didn't think it was a chance it was going in. Yeah.
Nah, it looked off left. It looked off left because I'm looking at it and you could see it go. It looked off like it was gonna go off to the left towards the middle of the lane. And once we saw it bounce, bounce twice, it was like, "Oh, this shit going in. It's going in." You know what I mean? And then once— it was just like, bro, that was the craziest amount of emotion because for me personally, I'm like, "Yes, I get another series." Like, I get another chance to play better. I didn't want my season to end, you know what I mean, with that performance on the table. I think we was all just relieved just to get out of that series and move on to the next one because that was a really tough series. I mean, we blew them out, they blew us out. We had to go there and play. Like that was a hard fought series.
Absolutely. And talk to me a little more about like the pressure that you're feeling. It's like you just said, I don't want this to end on that series. And I know what most people don't understand is this ain't, this is not Fred VanVleet, the $100 million player.
No, not at all.
This Fred VanVleet trying to make it, worrying about what that next contract is. What your contract is gonna be. Like, talk to me a little more about that pressure that you was feeling in playing and having those first 2 series that you had and then getting another opportunity.
Yeah, well, it's just back then I knew what I could do. You know what I mean? We always know what we can do as players and our confidence and, you know, you thinking about who you can be, but you still have to show that. And at that point in time, I hadn't really shown that I could be a starting point guard. I hadn't shown, all of these different moments. So I was just frustrated that this is the performance that I was putting out. You know, nobody's harder on myself than I am. Toronto is one of them cities where if you playing bad, you're gonna know about it. You know what I mean? We definitely have those type of fans where they will cherish you and worship you forever, but they gonna let you know when you not playing well. And so I was caught up in that for the first time in my professional career, like reading comments. And I had to go through all of that type of stuff.
Mm-hmm.
So all of that was just a learning experience for me, but I was lucky enough to come out on the other side of it. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
