For DeMar DeRozan, a title in a Raptors uniform felt like a certainty before he was traded.
The former Toronto superstar rehashed the trade to the Spurs in an appearance on ESPN’s First Take on Wednesday, saying without a doubt that the Raptors would still have won the NBA Championship in 2019 if his move had never happened.
“I didn’t get an opportunity to see what would have happened,” DeRozan said. “The utmost confidence within myself, I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would have happened.”
More than six years removed from the franchise-altering move, the ripples are felt throughout the franchise and the city to this day.
The move brought about a do-or-die mentality for the most successful era of Raptors basketball, putting the ‘We The North’ group on a deadline.
They managed to fulfill that promise, hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy after an all-time series against the Golden State Warriors, but it came after years of faltering in the playoffs, constantly running into the roadblock that was LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Nine days before DeRozan was dealt on July 18, 2018, that roadblock suddenly cleared as James took his talents to Venice Beach to play for the Lakers, seemingly giving the Raptors an open runway to the NBA Finals.
“I definitely feel like, you know, the only person we couldn’t beat was LeBron,” DeRozan said. “And I felt, off the year we had before, we just needed one more piece to kind of push us over the top. That piece came to be LeBron going to the West.”
Instead, DeRozan had to join James out West, ending up with the San Antonio Spurs as part of the blockbuster deal for Kawhi Leonard.
The six-time all-star still looks back on his time in Toronto fondly. On Paul George’s podcast ‘Podcast P’ he said that the city is the only stop that he’s felt an emotional connection toward.
DeRozan left the Spurs in 2021, joining the Chicago Bulls and proving that, like James, some players seem to get better with age. He scored a career-high 27.9 points per game in his first season there in 2021-22 and earned his third all-NBA selection.
Now as DeRozan gears up for his debut season with the Sacramento Kings, he’ll be closer to James than ever, set to take on the rival Lakers four times a year in the Pacific division.