DeMar DeRozan scored more points than any player in Toronto Raptors history, but he passed up another opportunity to diss Drake amid the ongoing fallout from the Canadian rap star’s feud with Kendrick Lamar.
DeRozan was asked about his feelings toward the Raptors organization and Drake’s disrespect as the Kings prepared to play Toronto in their preseason opener Wednesday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. DeRozan said Toronto will always be special to him.
“That’s home, man,” DeRozan said. “That’s where my whole career started. That’s where I became the player I am today, so the Raptors organization is definitely always going to have a special place regardless. Now, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now, nothing that can ever replace that feeling I had those nine years there , s o it’s always cool to see familiar faces that’s still there and going against them.”
Drake had some choice words for DeRozan last season when the Kings visited the Raptors on the night the team held a retirement ceremony to hang Vince Carter’s jersey in the rafters. Drake also told Canadian sports network TSN: “If you ever put a DeRozan banner up, I’ll go up there and pull it down myself.”
When asked about Drake’s remarks, DeRozan said: “He’s going to have a long way to climb to take it down, so tell him good luck.”
Following Tuesday’s practice, DeRozan said Drake’s actions that night have not sullied his relationship with the Raptors or their fans.
“No, I don’t care,” said DeRozan, who scored a franchise record 13,296 points in 675 games while leading the Raptors to the playoffs five times with four All-Star appearances in nine seasons.
“What I did there, I put my life on the line every single moment I stepped on the court. Nothing or nobody could ever take that away. I don’t get caught up in shenanigans or all the bull crap that comes with it. At the end of the day, I hoop. I go out there. Every true fan and every person that knows me there knows I represented that place more than anybody that ever came through there.”
DeRozan made cameo concert and video appearances with Lamar – a fellow Compton native – after being mentioned in “Not Like Us,” a hit diss track that took aim at Drake. DeRozan took the high road when asked about his role in the rap battle last summer in an interview with The Sacramento Bee.
“Drake’s still my man, still my man, none of it changed,” DeRozan said. “It’s so easy to get overlooked and look at it for what it looks like, but at the end of the day it’s music, entertainment. Two of the biggest rappers in the world went at it from a competitive standpoint and they battled it out. That’s what you want to see as a fan: Kobe (Bryant) playing (Michael) Jordan 1-on-1 and see who wins, see the trash talking, and whoever wins out of that, you’re still going to have the debate, so that’s all that is.”
Drake has not been so gracious. He tried to intimidate DeRozan last season in Toronto, threw a DeRozan jersey off stage in disgust during a February concert in Australia and dissed DeRozan in a leaked snippet from upcoming album.
DeRozan shrugged that off, too.
“I knew about it a year ago, so it ain’t nothing new,” DeRozan said. “It’s new to everybody, but I already knew.”