Much like the rest of his Toronto Raptors team, guard Fred VanVleet put up a gutsy performance in a win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 of the NBA Finals Friday night.
It won’t show on the stat sheet. VanVleet hit on just 3-of-9 shots for eight points in the road win.
However, it’s the toughness that this 6-foot guard showed that has him as the toast of Canada. VanVleet took an inadvertent elbow from Shaun Livingston in the second half of the game. He was seen with blood pouring out of his eye and a tooth on the court at Oracle.
It was not a fun scene.
And the tooth.
Showing himself to be in good spirits after the win, VanVleet had a hilarious take on the incident.
“If that’s what being a Canadian is, I’m not sure I want it,” VanVleet said of the missing tooth. That’s an homage to Canada’s pastime of hockey.
In typical hockey fashion, the man bleeding and without a tooth didn’t receive a foul call.
The good news? VanVleet is already about to get the tooth fixed. Maybe he’ll go with gold to represent a potential Raptors NBA championship trophy. After all, they are one win from a first title in franchise history.