DeMar DeRozan Says He Couldn’t Watch The Raptors Win A Championship The Year After He Left
After almost a decade with the Raptors, DeMar DeRozan had to watch from the outside as they won their first title in franchise history. DeRozan, who was traded the year before, was on the Spurs when he saw his former teammates win the championship but he says it was not an easy experience.
“It f**ked me up because we couldn’t beat one person. We couldn’t beat LeBron. The year LeBron got traded, LeBron left. I was more so made because I was like ‘give it one more shot.’ In my mind that’s why I was like ‘we got this sh*t now.’ So when I got traded that’s what made it hurt even more. I couldn’t watch, I’m not gonna lie.”
DeRozan, a 6x NBA All-Star, was traded to the Spurs back in the summer of 2018. The trade sent DeMar to be coached under Gregg Popovich in exchange for legendary swingman, Kawhi Leonard. Under Kawhi’s leadership, the Raptors managed to win it all that season (2019) and DeRozan was left as the odd man out.
For years, DeMar and his backcourt teammate Kyle Lowry made the Raptors a force to be feared in the league and they managed to secure the best record in the East in their final season together. Unfortunately, the Raptors had no answer for LeBron James in the 2019 playoffs and they were swept embarrassingly as the No. 1 seed.
DeRozan was traded months later, despite LeBron heading West, and he saw it as the ultimate betrayal. Even when Kyle Lowry, DeRozan’s good friend and teammate of several years, won his first title, DeMar couldn’t watch because of how it made him feel.
Looking back, there’s no question that the Raptors made the right move by trading for 2x champion Kawhi Leonard, even though he only stayed for one year. They won their only championship because of the trade and it will be a moment that lives on in history. DeMar, though, will never quite live it down.
