Derozan interview on ESPN, Tues 10pm EST (TONIGHT!)

[OAKLEY_2]

Er 59 wins.

[bballsparkin]

Damn why does every divorce with our star player gotta be ugly? This trade just keeps on getting more cray cray
been an NBA bombshell and pretty much the talk of the sports world for the past week

I heard on the radio the trade happened on literally the slowest sporting day of the year. They got nothing else to talk about lol

[Red_Claw]

lol@ "You put the blame on just me and Casey?"

When it's time for a new contract you let the raptors and the franchise know you're a max player and the franchise player. I deserve the max. But when we constantly lose to the Cavs, especially last year when we were better on paper at least, you feel the blame should be spread. You can't the a "superstar" when it's convenient Demar. You can tell he's mentally weak and thanked god lebron left the east. The west will really expose him, I'm telling you guys.

It seems unprecedented to fire your Coach of the Year and franchise player after fifty wins...

There may not be another team in history that is able to lose as many game 1 playoff games (most at home) then the Raptors have in the last 5 years. Thats also unprecedented.

[JN]

Masai should have called DD and told him something as soon as trade discussions started to heat up but MU probably didn't want to tell dd anything until it was serious and near finished just incase. Supposedly the spurs/raps discussions fell apart multiple times

I want a good answer how DD would feel any better if Masai told him say 5 days before the trade that you could be gone. How would making him a nervous wreck for a week make him feel better? And of course there are the obvious risks to us (he is angry if the trade falls through or he blows up on social media hindering the trade).

[sycammer]

Did he should also explain why he struggled so much in the playoffs? ; heck, he was no better than our wingmen on the bench (impact on the game, I’m speaking).

[PhilBlackson]

FFS...stfu already DeMar, you bitter little baby.

All these idiots on the GB claim there is no bias against the Raptors...

Tell me when ESPN went out and got an interview with a recently traded player and made it a segment, I'll wait...

Both Isaiah and Blake were MUCH worse than this yet both get swept under the rug like they were no big deal. DeMar gets a max contract and 2 years to prove himself but ESPN just can't seem to wait to jump on anything to rub our franchise's face in the mud (like that's anything new ie/ LeBronto).

Seriously f*ck American media n it's about to be f*ck DeMar for running down our franchise. For crying out loud IT was looking to re-sign with BOS, meanwhile this b*tch is out here bad mouthing us to anybody that will listen.

FOH CLOWN

[Courtside]

I also don't think I've ever seen an interview like this in professional sports. Ripping your former organization of 10 years in a televised media interview just because the GM didn't give you a "heads up" that you might be traded (despite all of the major rumours over the week previous that it would be a possibility) is completely ridiculous. Now it's totally understandable being upset about it, but it's time to be a professional. This is the opposite of how he should have reacted publicly and it is making all parties look bad.

Lots of players are pissed when they get traded. The difference here is that Demar is being given this platform in order to take shots at a team that ESPN has no benefit in liking, and he is being incredibly petty and small about it and actually using the platform to rip his former team, when any player with half a brain would realize this is unprofessional. He knows that the team cannot respond in kind and he'll get away with a one sided attack on the team and gain more of the sympathy among casuals. ESPN is all too happy to stir up the drama, though, since as a US-only station and aren't allowed to broadcast here. It's their pettiness against the lone non-American franchise that is helping inflate this story beyond what they would do if say, Kevin Love was traded away from Minnesota, or James Harden was traded out of OKC. Oh wait - both those things happened and neither player did what Demar is doing.

We're not one of the beloved historical franchises, so it's ok to shame us for thinking we could actually be better. We're supposed to just accept whatever players we get and be happy with it - don't try to actually be great, or take a player they would prefer to see in one of the legacy markets.

Eat ****, ESPN.

[WWSRD]

1. Demar is a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch.

2. No one will care about this Drama when the season starts and TO is (hopefully!) KILLING it.

[JD225]

You didn't just lose. You lost as the favourites and you got swept when every other team took Lebron to 7.

Lose in 7 or by seven or by four a loss is a loss. Boston, the new darlings of the east, with injuries, won three more games than us woopty do. Pacers? Lance got promoted to Bron Decision. We were never a tough team. End of silly story.

I have no idea what you are going on about. My post was in response to his quote about finally overcoming the Lebron factor. We struggled every single series with this team for the past 4 years not just Lebron. If you're trying to make sense of why you got traded it might help to look at something like that.

[lebron stopper]

After having a performance like he did against the cavs and this being his last official play with the Raptors I honestly wouldn't have been surprised about any trade. In fact I would be expecting it. Sorry Demar but your play on the court is what garnered the reaction you got from Masai.

What an awful way to end your stint with your first team tbh. :/

Pretty good read, even with haynes trying to stir up stuff for the clicks/views. Demar did feel like Masai did he him wrong, and attacked his character a bit from the misunderstanding. But the other things about how he felt about Canada, Toronto, the city, it's nice to hear and why he felt heart broken about leaving, especially when like 15 years ago you hear things like from Doug Christie, wack stuff like oh glad I'm out the city, the food doesn't even taste the same, or some b/s stuff like that.

http://kwese.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24184139/demar-derozan-dishes-trade-toronto-raptors-san-antonio-spurs-nba

Doug C hristie. What a bum!

[Chandan]

Damn why does every divorce with our star player gotta be ugly? This trade just keeps on getting more cray cray
been an NBA bombshell and pretty much the talk of the sports world for the past week

I heard on the radio the trade happened on literally the slowest sporting day of the year. They got nothing else to talk about lol

There is literally nothing crazy about the trade, except for the fact that the entitled drama queen thinks she should have the inside track with her 27 million dollar sacrifice, and decided to go to the media about this supposed disrespect.

[AkelaLoneWolf]

I also don't think I've ever seen an interview like this in professional sports. Ripping your former organization of 10 years in a televised media interview just because the GM didn't give you a "heads up" that you might be traded (despite all of the major rumours over the week previous that it would be a possibility) is completely ridiculous. Now it's totally understandable being upset about it, but it's time to be a professional. This is the opposite of how he should have reacted publicly and it is making all parties look bad.

Lots of players are pissed when they get traded. The difference here is that Demar is being given this platform in order to take shots at a team that ESPN has no benefit in liking, and he is being incredibly petty and small about it and actually using the platform to rip his former team, when any player with half a brain would realize this is unprofessional. He knows that the team cannot respond in kind and he'll get away with a one sided attack on the team and gain more of the sympathy among casuals. ESPN is all too happy to stir up the drama, though, since as a US-only station and aren't allowed to broadcast here. It's their pettiness against the lone non-American franchise that is helping inflate this story beyond what they would do if say, Kevin Love was traded away from Minnesota, or James Harden was traded out of OKC. Oh wait - both those things happened and neither player did what Demar is doing.

We're not one of the beloved historical franchises, so it's ok to shame us for thinking we could actually be better. We're supposed to just accept whatever players we get and be happy with it - don't try to actually be great, or take a player they would prefer to see in one of the legacy markets.

Eat ****, ESPN.

Nah I'm pretty sympathetic to Demar here. He clearly was committed to the franchise and this caught him off base and he's having difficulty dealing with it. Its like a breakup; its emotionally heavy and I'm sure a few months out he'll regret it, so I'll give him the break.
But Haynes and ESPN can suck a bag of d*cks.

[Randle McMurphy]

I also don't think I've ever seen an interview like this in professional sports. Ripping your former organization of 10 years in a televised media interview just because the GM didn't give you a "heads up" that you might be traded (despite all of the major rumours over the week previous that it would be a possibility) is completely ridiculous. Now it's totally understandable being upset about it, but it's time to be a professional. This is the opposite of how he should have reacted publicly and it is making all parties look bad.

Lots of players are pissed when they get traded. The difference here is that Demar is being given this platform in order to take shots at a team that ESPN has no benefit in liking, and he is being incredibly petty and small about it and actually using the platform to rip his former team, when any player with half a brain would realize this is unprofessional. He knows that the team cannot respond in kind and he'll get away with a one sided attack on the team and gain more of the sympathy among casuals. ESPN is all too happy to stir up the drama, though, since as a US-only station and aren't allowed to broadcast here. It's their pettiness against the lone non-American franchise that is helping inflate this story beyond what they would do if say, Kevin Love was traded from Minnesota, or James Harden was traded to Houston. Oh wait - both those things happened and neither player did what Demar is doing.

We're not one of the beloved historical franchises, so it's ok to shame us for thinking we could actually be better. We're supposed to just accept whatever players we get and be happy with it - don't try to actually be great, or take a player they would prefer to see in one of the legacy markets.

Eat ****, ESPN.

There's no doubt that there's a lot of that going on here. I'm always reminded of when the Jays traded for Reyes, Josh Johnson and Buehrle from the Marlins for a bunch of prospects in 2012 and the American media went crazy about the deal (which forced Selig to make an odd public statement that he would review it). Deals of that kind are made quite often in baseball (and made quite often with that particular team, see Giancarlo Stanton's acquisition by the New York Yankees last winter with none of the same kind of controversy). The difference, of course, is that the Jays were the one getting much better in theory and that is something that made the American media/Americans uncomfortable.

This Kawhi Leonard trade (especially the possibility that he might actually stay in Toronto long-term) is having a similar effect, it seems. The fact that the Raptors are not being considered the EC favourites by the American media is also telling to me (statistically they very much are now). If Kawhi was added to Boston or Philly in a similar kind of deal, there's no question either of those teams would be considered in that light.

[Courtside]

Nah I'm pretty sympathetic to Demar here. He clearly was committed to the franchise and this caught him off base and he's having difficulty dealing with it. Its like a breakup; its emotionally heavy and I'm sure a few months out he'll regret it, so I'll give him the break.
But Haynes and ESPN can suck a bag of d*cks.

I'm sympathetic to Demar too - in terms of feeling ditched - but that doesn't mean you go on Jerry Springer, you know?

[Northface82]

Watch on YouTube

Not cool how Masai handled it at all, and not a good look for the organization.

[AkelaLoneWolf]

Nah I'm pretty sympathetic to Demar here. He clearly was committed to the franchise and this caught him off base and he's having difficulty dealing with it. Its like a breakup; its emotionally heavy and I'm sure a few months out he'll regret it, so I'll give him the break.
But Haynes and ESPN can suck a bag of d*cks.

I'm sympathetic to Demar too - in terms of feeling ditched - but that doesn't mean you go on Jerry Springer, you know?

that's kinda the point tho...he doesn't feel heard...maybe feels Masai was a bit too harsh in the team's failures and needs to defend himself and his record...his statements make the case right there...he feels that casey and himself were being singled out and blamed for the team's failures...it sucks to hear that you aren't good enough despite trying your best...like I said I'll cut him some slack for this one.

[Childs]

Damn why does every divorce with our star player gotta be ugly? This trade just keeps on getting more cray cray
been an NBA bombshell and pretty much the talk of the sports world for the past week

I heard on the radio the trade happened on literally the slowest sporting day of the year. They got nothing else to talk about lol

There is literally nothing crazy about the traded, except for the fact that the entitled drama queen thinks she should have the inside track with of her 27 million dollar sacrifice, and decided to go to the media about this supposed disrespect.

I don't know why being overpaid is Demar's fault. If someone gives you a contract worth more than your output, would you say no I won't take it? Even outside basketball, if you were in a profession where your boss gives you a salary more than your skillset, do you say "No Boss take some money back, I'm not worth that much". That overpaid contract that so many Raptor fans blame him for, is on Masai, not Demar. He has to evaluate the contracts he's giving out.

[VanWest82]

Masai should have called DD and told him something as soon as trade discussions started to heat up but MU probably didn't want to tell dd anything until it was serious and near finished just incase. Supposedly the spurs/raps discussions fell apart multiple times

This is where you'd typically send a functionary like Webster to call up DeMar's agent and give him a heads up and ask him to let DeMar know smth might happen.

But the Raptors organization is so leak proof that they probably bristle at the idea of telling agents anything since agents are the sources for 90% of stories out there.

But to play devil's advocate, what would happen if Masai did let Demar know while talks were getting heated and then all of a sudden they cool off again and the trade never goes through? I'm wondering if Demar would have posted something similar or watch his back this season if he knew he was actively being shopped/was almost traded.

Yup. I get why Masai misled him. Summer league is gossip central. Even if Demar takes the news like a pro word probably still gets out and Spurs now know Masai is likely all in because you don't want to bring your now disgruntled star player back to camp. Spurs then use that leverage to demand more. By keeping Derozan in the dark, they can walk away from trade discussions at any time and not have to worry about repercussions. Still sucks though. This is really bad PR for Masai and the franchise.

[Chandan]

I heard on the radio the trade happened on literally the slowest sporting day of the year. They got nothing else to talk about lol

There is literally nothing crazy about the traded, except for the fact that the entitled drama queen thinks she should have the inside track with of her 27 million dollar sacrifice, and decided to go to the media about this supposed disrespect.

I don't know why being overpaid is Demar's fault. If someone gives you a contract worth more than your output, would you say no I won't take it? Even outside basketball, if you were in a profession where your boss gives you a salary more than your skillset, do you say "No Boss take some money back, I'm not worth that much". That overpaid contract that so many Raptor fans blame him for, is on Masai, not Demar. He has to evaluate the contracts he's giving out.

That's true, and I've been really harsh on Masai over the last two years over it.

It doesn't change the fact that derozan was compensated very generously for his work, and to make it sound like he sacrifices whatever to play here, and that he was doing us a favour of some sort is non sense.

His whole grip is he feels the team owes him for his contribution and he deserves to know Masai's plan before it materalizes, otherwise it's classified as disrespect. The bottom line is Masai didn't see it that way nor he needs to.

[maternal85]

After watching the video it's obvious he just wanted to finish his career in there. I get it. But deep down you can see in his eyes he's upset the gravey train is over. All this motivation talk. He'll be getting lit up regularly by western guards. Whatever points he scores he'll be giving up two.