DeMar DeRozan spoke in a recent interview with Doug Smith of The Star to promote his new book. In the interview, DeRozan addressed the possibility of a future return to the Toronto Raptors, and eventually retiring with the franchise, claiming that it would be incredible to get that chance, and he wouldn’t be able to reject the opportunity.
“If I had the opportunity to do something like that, you can’t turn something like that down, to put on that jersey for the last time, because it was the first jersey you put on.”
DeRozan made a name for himself on the Raptors, ascending to superstardom while bringing the franchise to championship contention during his nine years with the team. DeRozan was drafted by the Raptors in 2009 when he was paired with then-franchise superstar Chris Bosh.
However, Chris Bosh would leave the team in 2010 to join LeBron James and Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat. Bosh had inadvertently handed the reigns of the Raptors to DeRozan, much like Bosh had the reigns handed to him by his predecessor, Vince Carter in 2004.
DeRozan would slowly and steadily develop into a reliable star for the franchise, making his first All-Star game in 2014. With him as the leader along with Kyle Lowry, the Raptors would become one of the best teams in the NBA, with them securing the first seed in the Eastern Conference in 2018.
Unfortunately for DeRozan, he was in the Eastern Conference at the same time as LeBron James, which led to the Raptors getting decimated by James so badly that the city was jokingly dubbed ‘LeBronto’. Larry Nance Jr. recently joked about how the Cavaliers partied when they found out they’d face the Raptors in the 2018 playoffs.
DeRozan’s Raptors Tenure Ended Tragically
The end of DeMar DeRozan’s tenure with the Toronto Raptors might be one of the least fortunate in NBA history.
After years of suffering at the hands of LeBron James, that nightmare seemed to have been over, as James would sign with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, moving to the Western Conference, thus finally giving the Raptors a true chance.
But Raptors GM Masai Ujiri would pull off a move that sent DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for disgruntled star Kawhi Leonard. DeRozan was shocked that the franchise he considered his home would go behind his back to make a move, even hanging up on Masai Ujiri when he got the phone call informing him.
What made the move sting even more was that the following season, in 2019, Leonard and the Raptors won their first and only NBA championship in franchise history. For the player who was vital in the development of the Raptors as a contending franchise, he didn’t get to be a part of their greatest moment in history.
Perhaps a return to the franchise, maybe alongside best friend and fellow Raptors legend Kyle Lowry, to wrap their careers up, can bring about a moment of catharsis for DeRozan and the Raptors fanbase, who grew to admire each other during DeRozan’s stint with the team.
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