For Drozan, trades are painful memories.
Chicago Bulls Dermar Drozan joined The Pivot Podcast on Thursday to reflect on a trade that happened in the summer of 2018.
Drozan joined Toronto with the ninth overall pick in the 2009 draft, a draft that would later be remembered as a banner year. Since then, he has developed into an ace for the Dinosaurs, serving as the team’s primary resource.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Drozan’s role model was, unsurprisingly, Kobe Bryant. His dream was to become a one-club man like Kobe. 카지노 Drozan was a favorite of the fans in Toronto.
But it wasn”t to be. When the Kyle Lowry-Dermar D’Antoni system kept missing the playoffs, Toronto decided to make a change and acquire Kawhi Leonard. On the other side of the trade, Drozan and Jakob Pudl were dealt.
“I was really pissed off when I heard the news,” Drozan recalls. He even cried tears of sadness.
“I was watching a movie in the cinema and the general manager kept calling me,” he recalls, “and when I got out, I answered the phone and was told that I had been traded. I was in my car, and I asked him to stop, and then I got out and walked. When I got to the fast food restaurant, I was in tears because I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
“It’s only now that I feel comfortable talking about it, but it hurt me for a long time. I thought Toronto was where I belonged and I gave it my all. All my motivation and drive was simply to lead Toronto and I wanted to follow my favorite Kobe Bryant’s motto in its entirety: I wanted to play for one team and everything was planned,” he added.
He was also dealing with family health issues at the time, which made it even more difficult for him emotionally.
“When I was traded, I was devastated,” Drozan says. That’s when my dad started getting sick for the first time. It was the first time in my professional career that I felt bad. I was lost and started to question everything. I’ll never forget that day,” he recalls.
However, Drozan was able to recover and continue to be a force on the court. From San Antonio to Chicago, he has continued to build on his reputation as a midrange dominator and is a prolific scorer. He averaged 24.0 points this season, his 10th straight season averaging 20 or more points.