By John Denton
Oct. 8, 2016
ORLANDO – To characterize Evan Fournier’s winding, unlikely trek from skinny, wide-eye French kid to now a NBA standout as some sort of dream would be both insulting and disrespectful to all of the blood, sweat and tears that he has put into this march.
Sure, there’s grainy, decade-old video footage of a rail-thin Fournier boldly predicting to fellow Frenchman Boris Diaw that he would someday join him in the NBA. Still, it took Fournier years of growing his game in the semi-pro and professional leagues in France and learning English, fighting homesickness and being patient in his first four NBA seasons to stand where he is now – a blossoming star on a team that is looking to him both for his all-around play and locker room leadership.
``Back during the summer, sometimes just laying on my couch and watching HBO, it would hit me, `Wow, it’s all coming true,’’’ revealed Fournier, referring to his steady climb into that of a key role now for the Orlando Magic.
A lot of what Fournier wished for years ago when he watched the NBA from half-a-world away in suburban Paris – and religiously followed the Sacramento Kings and his favorite player, Mike Bibby – became real this past summer. First, the Magic opened up playing time at shooting guard and gave him more responsibility as the team’s heartbeat by dealing Victor Oladipo to the Oklahoma City Thunder for power forward Serge Ibaka. Then, the Magic proceeded to lock up Fournier’s future with the kind of four-year contract that told the basketball world that he is a centerpiece of the squad.
All of it was the reward for a 23-year-old player who continues to get better every season, works harder than most would ever dream and welcomes the challenges ahead.
The manner in which everything seemingly has fallen into place for Fournier is admittedly a bit surreal, he said. But at the same time, it has also made him hungrier and determined for more.
``I don’t really like the word `dream’ because that makes it seem like it’s something that’s never going to happen,’’ Fournier said. ``Playing in the NBA, since Day 1, it’s something that I’ve wanted to do and I’m realizing all my goals now. Maybe I need to set bigger goals.’’
The Magic’s goal for Fournier is for him to be a key piece on a team that meshes quickly despite all of its new faces, plays well throughout and surges into the playoffs in the spring. Coming off a career-year in which he averaged 15.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.2 steals a game, Fournier has easily been the Magic’s best player again this preseason. He had 18 points in 23 minutes on Monday in Memphis and another 14 points in 22 minutes Wednesday in Cleveland to draw the raves of new Magic coach Frank Vogel.
``There’s a reason we invested in Evan Fournier,’’ said Vogel of Fournier, who has made 12 of 18 shots and five of eight 3-point shots so far. ``He’s a heck of a basketball player.’’
That became quite apparent to the Magic when they studied just how incredibly efficient the 6-foot-7, 205-pound shooting guard was last season. Fournier was one of just eight players in the NBA to shoot at least 45 percent from the floor, 40 percent from 3-point range and 80 percent from the free throw line last season, joining Golden State’s Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard, Charlotte’s Marvin Williams, Los Angeles’ J.J. Redick, New York’s Jose Calderon and Sacramento’s Darren Collison.
Also, he was first in the NBA – ahead of even superstars LeBron James, James Harden and Curry – in points per possession (1.34) for players with at least 180 opportunities on the fast break.
Those kinds of numbers made Fournier a wanted man back in July when he became a restricted free agent. Several teams lined up to make pitches to try and steal him away, but Fournier said he never even looked over one offer sheet because he had zero intention of leaving Orlando.
As Fournier pointed out, the Magic had established a long history of faith in him when few others did. They traded away leading scorer, Arron Afflalo, in June of 2014 for the guard who had struggled the season before while playing off the bench with the Denver Nuggets. Then, the Magic shuffled their personnel around this past June to ensure that Fournier became more of a central figure on this Magic team. All of it, Fournier said, meant the world to his confidence and he said he never even allowed the thought of leaving Orlando to enter his mind.
``When I was traded here a couple of years ago, the first thing my agent said was, `You’re going to Orlando and you got traded for their best player, he was averaging 18 a game, and this is a great trade for you,’’’ Fournier recalled. ``It let me know that they had value in me and they believed in me and I was like, `Whoa!’ I was kind of surprised, actually. I already had confidence, but I didn’t think I had value like that after my first two years (in the NBA).
``I felt like the trades, the roster and all that’s happened – that meant more to me than the money,’’ he continued, refreshingly. ``I’ve talked a lot about it. Any team can throw a lot of money at you because they have it, but I really felt like the trades (to clear more playing time for him) meant the most to me and that’s why I wanted to stay.’’
Here, being seemingly on precipice of something great as a player, is a spot that Fournier quietly wondered if he could ever get to. He played only sparingly those first two years in Denver – first, as a point guard under George Karl and the next year as a spot-up shooter for Brian Shaw. In Orlando, there was often a logjam at the guard spots and the team also was chock-full of youth.
Now, with playing time cleared and his long-term future no longer a question, Fournier is eager to try and fulfil his destiny as a player. He poured himself into getting better this past summer, working five days a week – often twice a day – at adding muscle and more of a mid-range game to diversify his offensive arsenal. His numbers have climbed each of the past four years, and if his growth this season is commiserate to the work he’s put in, Fournier could be about to blossom into an elite guard. Even that `elite’ moniker somewhat troubles him because it suggests that it would quell his hunger to improve.
``To be honest, I don’t think like that because doing that kind of puts a ceiling on you,’’ he said. ``I’m just trying to get better day by day, year after year and try to give everything I have. Where that’s going to get me in this game, I don’t know. The thing that I focus on is giving all that I have every day and then if I become a great player, then great. Someday I’ll look back and have no regrets at all regardless what happens because I will know that I have given everything.’’
Occasionally, he does allow himself to look back and Fournier marvels at his march to this point. A lot was stacked against him, he feels, as a foreign-born player trying to work his way into the NBA. Just don’t call it ``a dream’’ because that would suggest that something just magically happened instead of him working to put himself in this position.
``I’ve come a long way from France, man,’’ Fournier said, shaking his head in amazement. ``I really feel like when you come here from overseas you have a deficit against you and you have to fight against a lot of things. But it feels now like the adversity helped me to be stronger mentally and keep fighting for what I wanted. At the end of the day, it feels like all of this is a gift to me.’’
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