VanVleet Opens Up About How Hard It Was To Leave His Two Babies At Home

Poor Freddy. One Toronto Raptor star is getting very real about how difficult it was to leave his family behind to head to Florida. Fred VanVleet said on July 17 that it was "tough" to leave his longtime girlfriend and two young kids after such a long time spent at home together.

VanVleet and his Raptors teammates are in Orlando, Fla. right now ahead of the NBA season restart on July 30.

For the fathers on the team like Fred, that means the painful decision of having to leave behind their families, particularly after several months of quality time at home when the season was paused.

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And VanVleet, who has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son at home with his longtime girlfriend, admits it's been a huge strain for him.

"That probably was the toughest part of the decision-making process, with two babies at home," VanVleet told Stadium's Shams Charania.

"I take a lot of pride in being a father and family's probably the most important thing to me so that was definitely a tough decision to make," he added.

The Rockford, Ill.-born star seemed emotional while talking about leaving his nearest and dearest behind.

However, he noted that having months of time off to spend with his family of adopted Torontonians, something that's very hard to come by for a first-team NBA star, was a "blessing in disguise."

"Being locked in the house for three or four months and spending every second of every day with them was new for all of us and it was a blessing in disguise, obviously (under) unfortunate circumstances," he added.

"That time was precious, I don't know if I'll ever get that again with the line of work that we're all in."

VanVleet did at least get to spend his son, Fred Jr.'s, first birthday at home with him, something teammate Kyle Lowry missed out on and "almost cried" about.

But what makes things worse for Fred is that he doesn't know if his family will come to join him in Florida amid the state's spiking case numbers. That's only allowed after the first round of playoffs, touted to be in late August.

As he says, "thank god for FaceTime."