Fred VanVleet Explains Why He Unfollowed His Teammates on Instagram

Fred VanVleet says he was just looking to beat the Instagram algorithm when he unfollowed all his Toronto Raptors teammates Wednesday

Aaron Rose | Dec 8, 2022

Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Fred VanVleet thought he'd dodged the question.

After a 25-point performance Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers and a half dozen questions about his performance on the court, it was time to address the elephant in the room. What happened to VanVleet's Instagram, one Toronto Raptors reporter sheepishly, by his own admission, asked.

Welcome to 2022 where the followings and unfollowings of NBA players are analyzed about as intensely as their play on the court.

"Don’t do it. Don't do it. You are going to be the guy out of everybody? Okay, go ahead. I’m disappointed," VanVleet joked, knowing the question was about to be asked. "You’re breaking my heart, I just want you to know that. Look at me, you’re breaking my heart bro."

So what exactly prompted VanVleet to unfollow almost all his teammates from Instagram on Wednesday? What caused the sudden change amid the longest shooting slump of his career?

"The fact that we have to talk about this is crazy in itself," VanVleet said. "But no, just trying to fight the algorithms man. I'm checking my page and it's like all shit that I don't follow. ... It's on Twitter and Instagram now too. So, it's like when I'm going up and down my feed (and) there's so many things that I'm not following, that’s just suggestion, suggestion, suggestion. So stupid me, let's unfollow everybody and see if it helps. It didn't help. Somebody caught wind of that, and said ‘oh, I unfollowed all my teammates.’ I unfollowed my mom too, they didn't care about that part.

"That's it, nothing more, nothing less, man. It’s gonna take more than a couple bad shooting games for me to lose my mind."

That's what caused the social media kerfuffle? Really?

"I know people are very interested in my personal life now, which is new for me and I got to be more aware of that, but I just take everything in stride, I'm a real person and that was it really, nothing more, nothing less," VanVleet continued. I didn't think it would be a big thing.

"Again, stupid me, right? So, you live and you learn, it’s nothing, I left the Toronto Raptors up there on purpose just so it wouldn't be taken out of context. But you know, here we are. This is the new world that we live in. I got to adjust and yeah, continue to figure out that part of it."

VanVleet now follows O.G. Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Chris Boucher, and Malachi Flynn on Instagram. As for the others, well, maybe they got swept up in that evil algorithm.

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