Sacramento Kings star DeMar DeRozan has been on a late-career renaissance. The forward is still one of the top isolation scorers in basketball despite being in his mid-30s. This isn't totally uncharted territory as he embarks on his next chapter. Although he's probably thrilled to go back to his home state to perhaps finish his career, being traded hasn't always been a great experience — especially when it first happened.
Six summers ago, DeRozan was abruptly dealt to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for disgruntled superstar Kawhi Leonard. As much as the city of Toronto was his lifeblood, most will concur that friends matter more. And leaving a close companion, with whom Deebo spent six seasons, was maybe the hardest part of his career.
"I remember when I found out it was 12 a.m. in L.A. I blew his phone up," DeMar told reporter Chris Haynes in 2018 . He was in Philly. It was 3 o'clock in the morning. Blowing his phone up 'til he answered. He answered, and I told him, and you could tell he was sleeping. He was like, 'What?' He just sounded out of it."
"My phone was going crazy. I said, 'Imma hit you, man. It ain't out yet. It'll be out in the morning.' I woke up in the morning. He sent me a long text. He couldn't believe it. But he gave me some words that helped me through the whole day, what to prepare for. As him just being my brother, outside of my teammate, he was there for me in that moment. You could tell it affected him as well, so it was cool just to have that support from him."
The trade struck the star duo to the core. When the season started, they couldn't have imagined that 2017-18 would be their last rodeo. But if someone told them they'd win a conference-best 59 games, they might have thought championship. Unfortunately, they were broken up when they felt like they had so much left to accomplish.
On his initial reaction
At 28 years old, No. 10 had another dazzling season. After recording a career-high 27.3 points per game in the previous season, DeRozan put together an MVP-caliber campaign (finished 8th in voting). He tallied 23.0 points and a career-high 5.2 assists. But in the postseason, the script on the star flipped.
In Toronto's second-round matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the All-NBA shooting guard was benched in the latter game of the series as he watched LeBron James toy with his teammates in a sweep. Little did he know that would be his last Raptors memory.
"Man, I was really stuck," he said of his initial reaction to the trade . I couldn't think for a second because it just didn't feel real. I didn't have no indication like it would be something else. If I knew that, I wouldn't have reacted the way I did. I would have been prepared for it. But it caught me completely off-guard because I'm thinking this is another summer."
"Move forward. I talked to my teammates every single day how we can get better. So to hit me with that at midnight out the blue, like, c'mon. Two days prior, it was asked, 'Is anything going on?' If it is, just let me know because the rumors keep coming up. Two days later, you're going here."
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Once a Raptor, always a Raptor
As he transitions into the final stages of his career, fans won't forget the exciting basketball the four-time Raptors All-Star put on display. When virtually every Raptors star in the past didn't want to stay in Canada for the long run — DeRozan was here to stay. When Toronto was the NBA's laughingstock, DeRozan turned them into a contender.
"What I'll most remember? It's so hard to say one particular moment because I can name a million things," he said . From the fans to All-Star [Game] being there to making the playoffs to seeing Jurassic Park for the first time."
"It's something I'll never forget, and without a doubt, it's no replacing Toronto in my heart and my mindset. Because, like I said, I put it all and laid it all out there. And, you know, just to see people talk about, even just mentioning me as the greatest player in Raptors history? Come on, man, that's an honor. I'm 28 years old, and you're putting me in that category? It's amazing."
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