DeMar DeRozan gets real on how Raptors trade damaged his mental health

05/21/2024 05:56 PM

DeMar DeRozan has been with the Chicago Bulls for three seasons now, and he has been a star in the Windy City. DeRozan has been in the league since 2009, but he hasn’t really been slowing down in recent years despite his age. He is turning 35 in August, but he is scoring just as well as he ever has.

Before DeMar DeRozan was with the Bulls, he played for the San Antonio Spurs and the Toronto Raptors. He with with the Raptors from 2009 until 2018, and he then he was with the Spurs from 2018 until 2021.

DeRozan loved playing for the Raptors and he thought that he was going to spend his entire career there. He played there for a long time, and it was a shock for him when he found out he was traded to the Spurs. DeRozan recently opened up about the experience on The Pivot Podcast, and he revealed that the whole situation messed up his mental health a lot.

“It f**ked me up, I'm being honest,” DeRozan said. “It's crazy, I'm more than comfortable talking about it now but for the longest time it f**ked me up because, one, that was the place I wanted to be, thought I was going to be, gave everything to like my whole motivation and drive was to simply put Toronto on the map. I wanted to follow the whole motto of, you know, Kobe [Bryant], my favorite player, I wanted to play on one team, I had it all mapped out, so when I got traded it was such a blow because at the time I was dealing with my family stuff, like you said, that was when my dad first started getting sick. That was the first time in my professional career where I just felt like out of it, I felt lost. I started to question every single thing.”

The Raptors acquired Kawhi Leonard, and they ended up winning a championship the very next season.

DeMar DeRozan recalled the day that the trade happened

DeMar DeRozan clearly remembers the day that he was traded. He got the phone call during a movie premiere, so he wasn’t able to pick it up. When he finally got in touch with his GM, he cried.

“I’ll never forget this day I was at a movie premiere watching Equalizer 2, Denzel [Washington] was sitting down the row, like it was one of those cool moments you know what I mean, and I kept getting the call from my GM and I couldn’t answer the phone so I’m like man f**k it, let me check Twitter, you know everybody always wants to check Twitter to see what’s going on,” DeRozan said. “So I’m like I don’t see nothing on Twitter or whatever so I just remember leaving the movie, I get the call, told me I got traded, you know, I was in the car getting something to eat, going to go get something to eat. I didn’t tell nobody in the car what happened when I got the phone call. I just told told dude stop the car. I got out the car started walking. I just walked down the street, sit in front of a fast food restaurant and I, like, I just start crying, like, I just I couldn’t believe it.”

DeRozan seems to be happy in Chicago now, but that trade definitely had a big impact on him.

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