DeRozan ready to flip script
San Antonio’s top scorer moves past hurt, will show Raptors that he’s the better man
It still hurts DeMar DeRozan and it always will and there is nothing wrong with that. Being moved against his wishes from a city and franchise he’d grown to love is not something that will ever fully leave his thoughts.
But if there is one thing Toronto Raptors fans came to know about the much-respected young man from Compton, it’s that he relishes doing what people think can’t be done, absorbing the hits and moving on, thriving and overcoming.
It is the same now, but in a different role; DeRozan is proving he is bigger than his anger and the disruption to his planned-out life. He is thriving as a member of the San Antonio Spurs, because to skulk away from that responsi- bility is not in his DNA. He is the same player. And the same man.
“There’s no doubt he was hurt, and a little bit angry, but anybody would be considering all the circumstances,” coach Gregg Popovich said of DeRozan’s reaction to a seismic NBA trade last July.
“He got over it the way each of us has to get over whatever might happen in our lives. Nobody walks through this life with no negative things happening to them.
“He understands that as well as anybody. We talked about it, for sure, but he handled it pretty much on his own because he is so mature already.”
That is what DeRozan is now hanging his hat on, his maturity, his ability to react well to adversity, his ability to prove people wrong. He remains angry about how the trade centred around him and Kawhi Leonard was orchestrated.
“I have no reason to talk to him. At all,” he said of Raptors president Masai Ujiri — but he’s proud of how it’s allowed him to grow.
“I had to fight through the stigma of whatever was placed on me, ‘Can’t do this, can’t do this, this,’ ” DeRozan said. “It was always something and I had to fight through it.
“For me to be in a whole new position, continuing to show that I can get better and not let something slow me down, hold me down? That’s something for me that’s always been my backbone — just continue to be resilient.”
And embrace that which is thrust upon you.
“I always try to find different ways to make me a better person, player, whatever it may be. Sometimes it takes a series of change,” he said. “This is my change and I indulge in it and try to make the most out of it.”
On the court, DeRozan really hasn’t missed a beat and his game hasn’t dropped off at all. He’s in a different system under a legendary coach in a new conference playing with teammates with whom he is still getting comfortable, yet his game is as reliable as ever.
He averages 22.9 points, a career-best 6.3 assists and 5.9 rebounds a game for the 21-17 Spurs, who overcame a rocky start to the season to win six of eight going into Thursday night. It didn’t take him long to fit in. “I think one practice in training camp or something, Pop cussed me out for passing too much. That’s when I realized, ‘all right,’ ” he said.
And only slightly longer to really accept his role.
“I’ve had more fun passing than I ever had,” DeRozan said in a wielding, 10-minute media session at San Antonio’s prac- tice facility. “I love to see my teammates get going, the confidence that I give them. It makes the game easy for me.
“It’s fun when I go out there and I am the leading scorer on the team, it’s just fun to get them going.”
Popovich, the longest tenured coach in the NBA, knew of DeRozan in only a passing way since the coach is always more focused on his own team rather than one he’d see twice a season. But he knew that DeRozan was a four-time all-star and an Olympian.
“I think I’ve mentioned the thing I wasn’t aware of is he’s such a good passer, such a willing passer,” Popovich said. “He gets lots of assists, creates a lot of shots for the team, and I wasn’t expecting that. That’s probably the thing that I learned the most about his play.
“He’s been in the league a long time, he’s been an all-star, so everybody knows how he could score, but that was new to me. And he’s been a great teammate. He’s been somebody who’s fit in really well.”
DeRozan said he’s not sure how he’ll react to his first game against his old team Thursday and figures a February meeting in Toronto will be exponentially more emotional for him.
But to know him is to know he will take great pride in showing his friends and former teammates that his game hasn’t declined, he’ll be truly appreciative of the best wishes of Toronto fans and he’ll be proud of what the Spurs are with him on the roster.
“I could never imagine being a franchise player with another team and coming to another organization and continue to be myself. It’s hard for anybody to get that opportunity. So, for me to have that, I am always humbled by it and I try to go out and make the most of it.”
The trade — involving DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, a Toronto draft pick, Leonard and Danny Green — changed part of DeRozan in a life-altering way. It took him by surprise and shook him to his core, a hard life lesson.
“It just kind of opened my mind up to no matter who you are in this business, and in life as well, you have to be prepared for anything,” DeRozan said. “It gave me not just this lesson on the court, but a life lesson as well.”
There will always be a part of DeRozan wistful for his time in Toronto, being so central to the growth of the Raptors’ franchise, such an integral part of every significant success the team has ever had.
He will also be forever proud of what he did, and sad that he can’t do any more.
“I wanted to break every single record that was there and be the first to do every single thing there. I always expressed that. Sometimes you don’t get in life the opportunity to marry the woman you felt was the woman of your dreams.”