DeMar DeRozan keeps door open on potential Raptors return
09/16/2024 01:06 PM
While Sacramento Kings star DeMar DeRozan isn't considering retirement anytime soon, he understands why Philadelphia 76ers veteran Kyle Lowry wants to retire with the Toronto Raptors one day. Lowry spent eight seasons with the Raptors, where he won an NBA title in 2019. DeRozan believes he would have won a championship had he stayed. Instead, Toronto traded DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard in 2018 after nine seasons removed from the 2009 NBA Draft, where the Raptors selected the 15-year veteran with the No. 9 pick overall.
DeRozan wouldn't mind rejoining the team that drafted him, per The Toronto Star's Doug Smith.
"You definitely want to go out in a poetic way, especially where it all started," he said. "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 served as the Raptors' sacrificial lamb toward their franchise's first championship. Although 2018-19 ended Leonard's lone season in Toronto, the two All-Star veterans are forever revered by Raptors fans as two key components that resulted in a championship.
Leonard, a Los Angeles native, returned to play for his hometown, signing a three-year, $149.5 million contract with the Los Angeles Clippers. In 2021, DeRozan was moved from the Spurs to the Chicago Bulls in a sign-and-trade.
DeMar DeRozan says he would have won a title with the Raptors
DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry, and the Raptors never reached the NBA Finals. After being swept 4-0 by LeBron James and the Cavaliers in back-to-back postseasons in 2018, DeRozan was traded to the Spurs the following offseason, in the same summer, when James signed a four-year, $154 million contract with the Lakers.
For this reason, DeRozan believes that the Raptors were destined to win the NBA title in 2019.
"The only person we couldn't beat was LeBron," DeRozan admitted via ESPN First Take's X, formerly Twitter. "That's just what it was, and I felt, off the year we had before, we just needed one more piece to kind of push us over the top, and that piece came to be LeBron going to the West. You know, and I didn't get the opportunity to see what would have happened, but [with] the utmost confidence within myself, I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would have happened."
Stephen A. Smith: "The year [Kawhi Leonard] arrived, [LeBron James] went to LA… Had DeMar DeRozan stayed there? He'd be [an NBA] champion with the [Raptors]."
DeMar: "For sure, I definitely feel like that. The only person we couldn't beat was LeBron."pic.twitter.com/9g2uczlHS9
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 11, 2024
DeRozan was traded to the Kings over the summer for Chris Duarte and two second-round picks. He then agreed to a three-year, $74 million contract.
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