Greivis Vasquez Interview

If The Brooklyn Nets Lose Tonight, This Man Will Be Responsible

Ask an average NBA fan what player led the league in assists last season and you’re likely to get an incorrect response. Conventional wisdom would lead most to think it was a superstar guard like Chris Paul or Stephen Curry, but the point guard whom actually dished the most assists in the 2012-2013 season was former New Orleans Hornets player Greivis Vasquez.

If you’re currently Googling the Venezuelan player’s name, don’t be embarrassed, you’re not alone. Since being drafted 28th in the first round of the 2010 NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies, Vasquez has consistently flown under the radar despite improving every year.

If you didn’t have to Google his stats, that means you’re an astute hoops fan, or you’ve been watching Vasquez play arguably the best basketball of his career versus the Brooklyn Nets. In his first two playoff games coming off the bench for the Raptors, Vasquez has nearly single-handedly given Toronto the edge in bench play averaging 14.5 points, 8.5 assists (vs. just 1.5 turnovers). Not to mention he’s shooting a mind-boggling 56.5% from 3-point range.

Those numbers would be good for a starter but they are great for a guy who is the back-up point guard — and who probably won’t be playing second fiddle for long. “I feel like I have to prove something every day so when I step on the court in these playoffs when everybody is watching I cannot waste any time,” says Vasquez. “I set myself to a high level and I expect to do even better in the next games [against Brooklyn].

Vasquez, who is signed with Under Armour, has a strong desire to prove something and that, coupled with his no fear attitude on the court are key attributes considering that his upstart Raptors team have less playoff experience collectively than Nets’ star Paul Pierce has by himself. To put it in perspective, Vasquez grew up watching Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Nets coach Jason Kidd play professional ball and now he’s playing against them in a playoff series. Having an opportunity to play against them — and a chance to beat them — is a dream come true for Vasquez.

As with many current NBA players, that dream was birthed for Vasquez as a young kid but it began coming to fruition ten years ago at the age of 17-years-old, when he moved from his native Caracas, Venezuela to Rockville, MD. Vasquez had been a basketball junkie since his pre-teen years, traveling through Caracas’ rough neighborhoods just to get a game. At hoops powerhouse Montrose Christian, he quickly adapted to living in the US and excelled against steeper competition. Eventually, he started playing under Gary Williams at University of Maryland where he graduated as the second leading scorer in school history.

Despite his fire to win and the stats to back it up Vasquez has bounced around the league a lot. After helping Memphis to their first playoff win in franchise history, they shipped him to New Orleans for Quincy Poindexter. After leading the league in assists, New Orleans traded him to Sacramento in a three-team blockbuster deal. Upon arriving in Sacramento, Kings General Manager Pete D'Alessandro sang Vasquez’s praises to NBA.com, saying "he established himself as one of the league's most talented young point guards last season and we're confident he'll continue this trajectory in Sacramento.” By the middle of the 2013-2014 season he was traded again, this time to the Raptors.

The constant uncertainty doesn’t seem to get to him. Speaking with Vasquez, one gets the feeling that he’s so focused on success that circumstances don’t rattle him. Chalk that up to his faith in God and his desire to represent his native country. Vasquez gives back already but his plans to do clinics and work with kids are far greater than his current work (think Dikembe Mutombo’s work in Nigeria). “It wasn’t easy to get here, I didn’t have an NBA player to show me the way, I had to figure it out myself,” he says. I’m not an elite player right now and I haven’t reached my peak but I’ll get there. I want to take all of this back home and help my people. I can’t be the only Venezuelan player in the NBA, I want more and I have no doubt that I can help have a huge impact in helping kids back home.”

As the old saying goes, winning cures everything and Vasquez seems to have found a home in Canada for now. In the final year of his rookie contract, the fearless point guard slowly but surely replacing his best kept secret in the NBA tag with a more appropriate potential star one. Along with NBA All-Star DeMar DeRozan, starting point guard Kyle Lowry and the rest of the Raptors, Vasquez aims to transform the Raptors culture to a winning one. “We’re humble, we don’t really want attention we just want people to respect us and the only way you can do that is being consistent and winning year after year,” he says.

The first round series against the veteran-led Nets is perfect opportunity to make the basketball world believe in the Raptors. They have a young exciting team, a world-famous ambassador in Drake (“he’s a humble dude”) and a glue guy in Vasquez who is capable of taking over a game by passing or scoring. “It’s no pressure on us because they’re the guys who have done it before, we’re just trying to prove something,” says Vasquez. “This is not a fluke.”