RAPTORS FANS EMBRACE CHANCE TO SAY GOODBYE
Outpouring of love for DeRozan closes book on biggest trade in team history
They have been prominent in the crowd at the Scotiabank Arena all season, the DeMar DeRozan jerseys.
They are evidence of how popular he is in this city, evidence of how his departure, unique among superstar Raptors, was more than a little sad for the team’s fans.
On Friday night, those wearing his No. 10, which will one day hang in the arena’s rafters, put those jerseys on with a sense of purpose.
To say thank you, to say goodbye, to express love and regret, to tell the kid from Compton, Calif., that it meant something that he embraced the Toronto Raptors, even if, in the end, the franchise didn’t return the hug.
And when it was all over, after the ovations when DeRozan took the floor in Toronto for the first time as a visitor, and again when the starting lineups were announced, and again with the requisite scoreboard tribute that had the entire arena on its feet for more than two minutes, it was the final, awkward, emotional bookend to the biggest trade in Raptors history.
And also, the end to the most unusual of departures.
DeRozan didn’t leave when he had the chance and he didn’t come back as a villain, like so many before him.
He also didn’t stay here until his legs were gone, then give up and chase a title elsewhere. He was still here, still an all-star, when the team gave up on him. All of that resulted in the surreal scenes of Friday night, where the player receiving the most love in Toronto was a member of the San Antonio Spurs.
That chapter, seven months later, is finally closed.
And now, the Toronto Raptors are off to find out if that most difficult of transactions was worth it.
As it stands, it is an impossible question to answer. The common belief is that the team had to blow up the foundations in order to raise its ceiling.
Too much playoff disappointment with its greatest-ever player meant that management, president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster, were willing to take a big risk when the opportunity to acquire Kawhi Leonard became available.
The risk-taking continued with the jettisoning of three rotation players for Marc Gasol, the veteran centre and all-NBA talent.
Add in Jeremy Lin, suddenly the backup point guard after the hand injury to Fred VanVleet, and a Raptors team that was supposed to be rounding into playoff form by now feels like, as it exits the all-star break, is starting all over again.
In that way, it was the perfect time to say goodbye to DeRozan.
For all of the well-earned salutes coming his way over the past few days, for his work ethic, for his vulnerability, for the way he became a franchise leader in a foreign country in a way that literally no star player in 20-plus years had for the Raptors, he also couldn’t be separated from the team’s repeated playoff failures. Last season he adapted to the new offensive philosophy, passing more and attempting more threes, and then the Cleveland Cavaliers came along and shut him down again.
He was benched for the whole fourth quarter of Game 3 in that series, while his teammates mounted a stirring comeback that was ultimately casually dismissed by a LeBron floater, and when it was over, DeRozan was at a loss to explain another playoff nightmare.
It was time to move on. It just remains unclear, after threequarters of a season in which Leonard and Kyle Lowry have both missed significant time, and in which Gasol and Lin have only just arrived, what the Raptors have become.
The team that was routinely strafed by the Cavaliers at playoff time is now shot through with guys who have been all-defence players.
The team that has always lacked a crunch-time scorer who could find his shot against tough defence has, in Leonard, just that kind of player.
The team that for years preached depth and continuity is about to embark on two months of trial and error in which head coach Nick Nurse figures out what to do with his new players, and also his newer players, and even his newest players.
These are quite obviously not the Same Old Raptors, but now they just have to prove it.
The Raptors said goodbye to DeMar DeRozan on Friday night. It was a strange moment. The crowd loved him, cheering him every time he touched the ball in the early going, even celebrating his baskets. Some habits are hard to break.
After the video tribute that built to a Thank You DeMar finish and an image of DeRozan, beaming and resplendent in his old red jersey, the place went nuts, and DeRozan came out to midcourt to wave his appreciation.
The cheers and chants continued, DeRozan tried to focus on listening to his coaches, and his old teammates teased him a little.
He waved to the crowd once more when he returned to the court, probably glad to have that business over with.
It was an arena full of people saluting a beloved player for what he has done in Toronto. It was loud, it was celebratory, it was honest.
It also felt a lot like the whole of Raptors fandom imagining, for a minute, what might have been. LEONARD LIFTS RAPTORS: Leonard played spoiler on DeRozan’s emotional return to Toronto on Friday.
Leonard scored 25 points, including a breakaway dunk after a steal off DeRozan with 15 seconds on the clock, and the Raptors held on to beat San Antonio 120-117.
DeRozan finished with 23 points for the Spurs.
The Raptors said goodbye to DeMar DeRozan on Friday night. It was a strange moment. The crowd loved him, cheering him every time he touched the ball in the early going, even celebrating his baskets. Some habits are hard to break.