The Toronto Raptors are in the midst of arguably their toughest road trip of the season. Yet DeMar DeRozan feels right at home.
From his favourite “Poetic Justice” hat in honour of California rapper Tupac to the “Straight out of Compton” sound drop that blares in the Air Canada Centre after he makes a basket, DeRozan is a walking reminder of where he’s from. And not only is the native of California happy to return to the west coast during the season, he credits his year-to-year growth as a player with his offseason work in his native state. Whether its private workouts atop the Oakland hillside, shootarounds at his old high school gym in Compton, or the intense competition of Los Angeles rec leagues, DeRozan has used California as his very own training grounds.
For NBAers, spending large chunks of the summertime playing ball in Los Angeles is hardly a new concept. The LA Summer Pro League, started in 1969 as vehicle for NBA teams to work out players, and these days it’s become DeRozan’s favourite time of year. “Summer runs are amazing,” he says. “You have so many places you can go play and you could play all day if you wanted to. Everything is in L.A. and everybody wants to be there for the weather.”
DeRozan’s usual California runs are not limited to but often include good friend and fellow Compton native James Harden, teammate Jonas Valanciunas and opponents like Trevor Ariza, Jordan Clarkson, Victor Oladipo, and Julius Randle.
The Raptors often take over the Clippers’ training centre during parts of the summer for private player development, but the Clippers practice court has also become the home to some of the best league-wide runs closed to the public.
The most hyped games in L.A., however, are for public consumption. Historically the best games in L.A. are at the Drew League, which was founded in 1973 and has become arguably the pre-eminent summer basketball league in the world. The draw is so big fans start to line up 5-6 hours before tipoff to snag one of the 1,000 or so wooden bench seats.
DeRozan is one of the famous NBA fixtures in the Drew League, home to some of the most competitive non-NBA basketball in the world. With the influx of NBA players living in California in the offseason in recent years “The Drew” has taken over New York’s Rucker Park as the place to see and be seen among the NBA’s best.
It is a rite of passage to play in the Drew. One of the most decorated players from L.A., Paul Pierce, can be found watching games all day courtside. Becoming one of the big dogs in the local basketball scene is something all young players from the area aspire to.
DeRozan credits that level of heightened competition as the reason he made it out of Compton,. “That’s just that mindset of growing up out of L.A.,” he says. “You see a lot of success. It makes guys strive to want to be successful and work hard.”
DeRozan takes his current role of one of the pied pipers of the L.A. summer basketball scene to heart. “Seeing so many guys that make it coming from L.A., I know a couple young dudes who look up to me that say ‘I know DeMar. If he can make it I can make it.’ That is what it was like for me growing up looking up to guys playing in the NBA it gave me that much more confidence that I can make it.”
Two of the current Raptors players are among the California contingent that looked up to DeRozan and watched him play in the summer. “I remember watching DeMar’s highlight tape when I was young,” says rookie Norman Powell, “so, yeah, me and Delon [Wright] talk about how crazy it is we are his teammate now.”
“I’ve known Delon for awhile since he was a young kid with the relationship I had with his brother [NBA veteran Dorrell Wright],” DeRozan recounts. “Watching him grow, go through high school, go through college. I’m happy to see that but at the same time I feel old. My relationship with Norm I was with him all summer. He was getting that L.A. summer work in right beside me” says the 26-year-old shooting guard.
With so many of the elite players in the league in one locale surprisingly the trash talk is left on the court. “When we are together we never talk about who the best of our generation is,” says DeRozan. “Maybe that will be a conversation we have when we are older and in rocking chairs or something.”
If it is up to him, DeRozan’s California-bred teammates Powell and Wright will one day be in that conversation with him, “I want those guys to be successful,” he says, “I remember being in their position going through that experiencing everything for the first time. I’m going to try and be there for them and be that vet for them.”
The one thing in their favour is they’ve been through the grinder of the Los Angeles summer circuit. If you can make it there you can make it anywhere.