Spurs update
After losing father, Derozan finds escape on basketball court
Demar Derozan walked off the court and to the locker room after another tough night at the AT&T Center on Thursday. The Spurs dropped their fourth game in a row, 98-85 against a short-handed L.A. Clippers team begging to be beaten. Derozan had been middling, scoring 23 points to lead the Spurs but missing 11 of 19 shots and managing only eight points in the second half as the Clippers pulled away.
“We got to take this on the chin, these past few games, and understand how much it hurts,” Derozan told reporters later. “We still have a lot of basketball to be able to turn this thing around.”
In a different world or a past life, Derozan probably would not have left the arena without calling his dad.
Frank Derozan would have been there to offer tough advice, warm solace or a welcome distraction. There has been nobody to answer it since Feb. 19, when his father died after a
What: Record: When/where:
Clippers 98, Spurs 85. 22-20.
Bulls at AT&T
Center, 7:30 p.m.
FSSW; WOAI-AM 1200, KXTN-AM 1350 and FM 107.5 (Spanish).
Tv/radio: long illness in Los Angeles.
Ask Derozan how he is holding up, and the million-dollar smile that has made him a favorite in Toronto and San Antonio darkens a bit.
“Managing,” Derozan said. “All you can do is manage what you can manage every single
day and take it day by day.”
It is no stretch to say this has been the hardest year of Derozan’s life. For 31 years, Frank had been his son’s mentor, role model and rock.
When Derozan was a boy, growing up in the Compton area of Los Angeles, his father used to accompany him to a nearby park to play basketball. Frank wouldn’t dare let his son go alone, lest he become either tempted or threatened by rival gangs roaming the streets.
Derozan’s father rarely missed one of his son’s games at Compton High School, or in college at Southern California. Later, after Demar had become an all-star in Toronto, Frank was known to parade around Compton in a jersey his son had given him.
On the back it read “Derozan’s Dad.”
When Demar played in Toronto and his father’s health began to fail, Derozan often returned home on off days to visit, sometimes requesting an excused absence from practice. What does a man do when his pilot light goes out? Sometimes simply managing is the hardest thing to do.
Getting back on the court has helped, Derozan said. He did not play for eight days earlier this month, missing four games to attend his father’s funeral and help his mother, Diane, tie up loose ends.
“Sports, through my whole life, has always been an escape from any issues, problems that you go through just in life in general,” Derozan said. “It’s always an escape.”
Without his father around for the past month, Derozan has had to look to others as a fount of strength and comfort.
An only child, Derozan has kept a close watch on his mother, who he calls “one of the strongest women I’ve ever witnessed.”
“It takes a lot to see a woman go through so much and still be able to stand tall,” Derozan said.
Derozan’s daughters, Diar and Mari, also have been successful in lifting his spirits.
“Leaning on my mom and, obviously, my kids,” Derozan said. “They always find some type of positivity.”
Derozan has been preparing for the death of his father since midjanuary, when Frank’s health took a turn for the worst. He missed two games then to return home.
When Frank Derozan breathed his final breath, the Spurs were quarantined in Charlotte, N.C., amid a team-wide COVID-19 outbreak. Because the Spurs had four games postponed during that period, Derozan missed only one game.
The seven games Derozan missed so far this season have been to support his father and family. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich calls Derozan “the glue” holding together the team’s precarious playoff hopes.
“We would be in big trouble without him being our anchor,” Popovich said.
Heading into Saturday’s game against Chicago, Derozan leads the Spurs in scoring (20.6 points per game) and assists (a career-best 7.1 per game).
In his first three games since his father’s funeral, Derozan combined for 70 points and 25 assists.
He has followed that with a pair of games that have not been as efficient, totaling 42 points and only five assists in a pair of losses to the Clippers in which he made only 15 of 37 shots.
As anyone else in the Spurs’ locker room can attest, Derozan’s value to the club’s rebuilding project stretches beyond the shots he makes or misses.
“We’ve had a lot of different lineups, young guys coming in who haven’t really played much, and he was just steady the whole time,” Spurs guard Derrick White said. “He does a lot to help the young guys out, build their confidence up, teach them. Then, obviously, his play speaks for itself.”
The Spurs are 1-4 since Derozan returned to the lineup. Win or lose, however, Derozan said the basketball court has provided a 48-minuteper-night respite for him.
“I feel like sports is an outlet, not just for myself but for all players,” Derozan said. “Just being around your teammates and having that camaraderie. Being around the guys can kind of take your mind off things.”
If there is a silver lining to the Spurs’ jam-packed second-half schedule for Derozan, it’s that there isn’t much time to let the mind wander. Saturday night, the Spurs face a Chicago team that was among the most active at the trade deadline, adding All-star Nikola Vucevic and center Daniel Theis.
Both could be active as the Spurs try to snap their losing streak before it becomes the longest of the season.
No matter the outcome, though, Derozan will head to the locker room afterward and wish to make a phone call he no longer can.
There is no playbook for dealing with the loss of a father, Derozan has discovered.
The best he or anyone can do is manage.