ManBeast wrote:Double Helix wrote:I got mistey-eyed for that Derozan one. He isn't perfect but neither is our market in comparison to the rest and I have a ton of respect for him and find it easy to root for him. That counts for a lot of you play for my favorite teams.
When I complete my mancave someday I think I'll proudly have a pic of Kyle, Derozan and JV battling Kyrie, Lebron and Love just for the history of it all near the bar. Feels right.
Proud to have Derozan on my favorite team. Especially after being reminded of what OKC fans are going through at the moment.
Complete opposite, cannot wait for the day the guy is gone away from this team and we have a more exciting brand of higher efficiency, more fundamentally sound basketball.
Ashamed to proclaim my favorite team is Toronto when everyone around chuckles and says "lucky you have Lowry or Demar would have you in 8th place....."
Families that are in the lowest socioeconomic brackets (i.e., in deep poverty) often require multiple generations to break the cycle and really make the transition into the upper class of society. Often it's the parents' generation that establishes the first foothold, breaking out of poverty and creating opportunities for their children, but it's the children who are able to take advantage of those opportunities and really become successful.
Just based on the conversations I've observed on this board, there are a number of children of immigrants (or those who immigrated here as children) who post here. They know this first-hand, as often the parents struggle a bit (or a lot) to create a platform from which the children have the opportunity to get a good education, to get a good job, to take risks. Ultimately to be successful. So while the parents themselves may not end up being particularly wealthy, their children often end up reaping the rewards of their work a generation later.
Why is this relevant?
Well, for most of the first two decades of this franchise's existence, the raptors have been in the lowest socioeconomic bracket in the NBA. They have been the lower class of the league. They have been living in the NBA equivalent of deep poverty. They lost constantly. They missed the playoffs constantly. Even when they had star players, Toronto was always seen as a place that stars left as soon as they had a chance to do so. This started from day one of the franchise's existence with BJ Armstrong. It continued with Damon, McGrady, Carter and Bosh. After every moderate degree of success, the franchise inevitably fell back into the depths of poverty and despair.
What DeMar, along with Kyle, Dwane and Masai, have done is help break that cycle. His re-signing is a big deal for the franchise. The fact that he took only one meeting and didn't even consider playing anywhere else is a big deal for the franchise. He's helping the franchise move up into a higher socioeconomic bracket. This team is no longer a joke around the league. Guys don't start laughing when you hear the Raptors name come up. Opponents don't walk into Toronto expecting to win. They walk in expecting a fight; it's a tough game on the schedule for every opposing team, including the championship contenders.
DeMar has helped establish a platform for future success. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think DeMar is a perfect player. He has numerous flaws to his game. But even though DeMar isn't good enough to be a championship cornerstone on his own, he's played a very, very important role in moving the franchise to a new place. And hopefully the generation who comes after him will be able to reap the rewards of his efforts and loyalty.
I hope that when DeMar's career is over, we can look at him the way San Antonio looks at David Robinson. Robinson was a great player; an MVP-level player, a hall of famer who was no doubt better than DeMar is now. But even then, Robinson wasn't good enough to win a championship on his own either. But what he did was break San Antonio out of the lower class of the league in the years after George Gerwin left. He helped establish a culture of winning and competition and respectability around the league. So when Tim Duncan came along, he slid into that organization and culture and was able to lead the team to 5 championships (including the first one with Robinson).
David Robinson is viewed as a lifetime Spur and someone who'll perpetually be part of the Spurs family. And his work (along with Pop, Buford and Duncan) has had a huge, lasting effect on everyone who came after him. Tim Duncan acknowledges his impact. Pop acknowledges his impact.
I hope DeMar's legacy will be viewed similarly in Toronto when he eventually moves on. It would be great if we can win a championship with him on the team. But I know that if the Raptors do, it'll be with DeMar as the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th banana on the team. Maybe Val will step up and be the guy to lead us eventually. Maybe Norm. Maybe someone who's traded here or drafted here in the future. But whomever it is will enter into the team and culture that DeMar (and Masai and Kyle and Dwane) helped build.
So even if the team doesn't win a championship, I hope that DeMar will still be remembered fondly for his efforts to help firmly establish the Raptors as a 'have' franchise around the league. An upper class team. A franchise whose name commands respect.
That's a big deal. Because this franchise has been living in the bottom rung of the league forever.
And even if DeMar doesn't get us all the way to the top, he still will have played a hugely important role in making it possible for someone else to do so in the future.
I'm glad he re-signed and for the way he re-signed.
Similar to how the first kid from a family that is able to successfully graduate from college is an outsized big deal for the family, today was a huge deal for the franchise.
Thank you, DeMar.