Family time comes before showtime
DeRozan goes home an all-star with a chance to share the experience
A special weekend is unfolding for DeMar DeRozan. The NBA all-star weekend in his hometown of Los Angeles. His best Toronto Raptors buddy, Kyle Lowry, is on his team, and his head coach and the Raptors’ staff are along for the journey. It’s a chance to catch up with a bunch of his U.S. teammates from the Olympics, with DeRozan a top player on the top team in the Eastern Conference.
And it will be time away from all of them that will be special. Family time. The time DeRozan enjoys most.
The trip back to L.A. will allow him a chance to see and spend time with his ailing father, with his mother and cousins and all kinds of kids. “It means everything,” he said. DeRozan said earlier this week that he would try to do as much as he could “with everybody close to me, kind of let them witness the experience as well . . . I’m going to get as much time (with family) as possible.”
When he headed from Chicago to California after Toronto’s win over the Bulls on Wednesday, DeRozan wasn’t sure whether his father would be able to actually attend Sunday night’s game at the Staples Center. Frank DeRozan is battling kidney problems and multiple other health issues and has been only able to catch up on his son’s games by watching on a tablet DeRozan got his dad last month.
After flying back in between games in a hectic NBA season whenever he could spare a few hours, DeRozan will get to spend some quality time with his dad and, as the 28-year-old often says, it will mean “everything.”
“It should mean a lot,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “It should be very special to him, where he started, his father being in bad health. I’m sure it’s going to be very emotional for him.
“I don’t know if he would ever let on that it is, but it should be. And it’s a tribute to him, and I’m happy for him that he gets to go back to L.A. — where he went to high school, where he went to college, played AAU there — and perform on the highest stage that a basketball player can play on.”
Family has always been a thread that has tied DeRozan, Lowry and Casey together, and it will again this weekend.
Each of them have two young children who are with them sharing whatever fun can be had.
Casey said his daughter will work as a ball girl during the weekend. DeRozan’s daughters will renew acquaintances with all-stars they’ve met previously. Lowry’s boys will do the same; he says it’s his favourite part of the weekend.
“My kids being around, being able to hang out with LeBron (James), Steph (Curry), Jimmy Butler, Giannis (Antetokounmpo). To be able to hang with those guys and see those guys and take pictures with those guys — me as a fan of theirs, I get my kids some pictures with them. That’s important,” Lowry said, “Shoot, LeBron James knows my sons’ names. That’s big. Jimmy Butler, he loves my kids, my kids know him.
“Also, being able to hang out with DeMar. He and my family are friends. Having some time to hang out with us, and (for my kids) to see that I’m on a level with those guys.”
But it will resonate mostly with the hometown kid. DeRozan will be surrounded by more extended family than any of the Toronto representatives and the time he spends with them will be the highlight of the weekend.
The kid from Compton returns as an all-star. His father will know it and see him, the rest of his family will share the experience.
“It just shows you how life works, how things just come full circle,” DeRozan said.
“To be able to go home this weekend and be able to play in front of your friends, see your family, I don’t even have words for it. It’s just a crazy thing.”