Although DeMar DeRozan had a sour exit from the Toronto Raptors in 2018, the forward doesn’t sound like he’s holding much of a grudge.
In fact, DeRozan craves a return to the team that made him an NBA player.
Appearing on the JD Bunkis Podcast on Sportsnet 590 The Fan on Tuesday, DeRozan was asked if he would like to finish his career as a Raptor.
“You always want a poetic ending (in) that way,” he said. “Granted, most people don’t get to write their own ending. But what a better ending than being able to end where you start. Not just end, by just putting up the jersey. It has to be in a sense of me still being myself.
“I wouldn’t want to come back and be (Hakeem) Olajuwon (who finished his Hall of Fame career as a Raptor for one season with hugely diminished numbers). It has to just make sense. You kind of want to go out like you came in. That’s what people kind of remember you as.”
DeRozan, of course, was traded to the San Antonio Spurs in the Kawhi Leonard deal before the 2018-19 season. Leonard then led the Raptors to their first and only NBA title that season.
The Raptors’ first-round pick (ninth overall) in 2009 out of USC, DeRozan said earlier this month he felt the team still would have won a championship if he wasn’t traded.
But instead, DeRozan has travelled around the NBA. The Spurs traded him to the Chicago Bulls and he is now a member of the Sacramento Kings on a three-year contract after a summer sign-and-trade.
The 35-year-old averaged 24 points per game last season, the 11th year in a row in which he was at 20 points or more.
DeRozan, who remains a fan favourite in Toronto, returns to town for the first time as a King on Nov. 2.