VanVleet's All-Star Selection Keeps Great Illinois Streak Alive

Rockford's own Fred VanVleet received some great news during his pregame warm-ups before Thursday night's Bulls game.

It was just announced that VanVleet would be going to his first All-Star game since entering the league in 2016. It was a pretty cool scene with his teammates mobbing him and then his old teammate DeMar DeRozen came over to congratulate him.

Side bar real quick. The DeRozen-VanVleet relationship reminds me a lot of the current connection between DeMar and Ayo on this year's Bulls team. DeMar obviously likes to be a role model and take young players under his wing. It worked out for Fred, and it seems like it's making a very positive on Ayo early in his career.

Bulls fans should be very excited that a veteran like DeRozen is in town to mentor a talent like Ayo.

But this post is about Fred so I digress.

The All-Star selection is of course very cool and important for Fred but it also keeps a pretty impressive streak alive that was brought to my attention by our old friend Donnie Kolakowski.

Almost 30 years of an Illinois high school basketball player making the NBA All-Star game is very impressive.

Chicago is obviously a cradle of excellent basketball but seeing Iguodala, who went to high school in Springfield and Fred from Rockford shows that it isn't just Chicago producing the talent.

Fred surely remembers his high school days as well. He was quick to congratulate his old coach Bryan Ott on his 400th win on Wednesday night.

Just a reminder to bet on yourself, sometimes the odds pay off.

30 famous people you might not know were college athletes

Stacker dug deep to find 30 celebrities who were previously college athletes. There are musicians, politicians, actors, writers, and reality TV stars. For some, an athletic career was a real, promising possibility that ultimately faded away due to injury or an alternate calling. Others scrapped their way onto a team and simply played for fun and the love of the sport. Read on to find out if your favorite actor, singer, or politician once sported a university jersey.