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DeMar DeRozan is averaging 17.7 points per game this season.
Veteran Sacramento Kings star DeMar DeRozan lost his cool when he felt disrespected by an NBA fan mocking his career’s work. A fan questioned the league over DeRozan reaching a scoring accolade that will match all-time great NBA center Shaquille O’Neal on the all-time league scoring list. DeRozan felt it was out of line and responded with a vulgar message towards the fan.
The following exchange occurred between DeMar and Twitter/X user:
Fan: DeMar DeRozan only needs to average 18 PPG for another 105 games to surpass Shaq in career points and enter the all-time Top 10 I find this deeply disturbing.
DeMar: Disturbing!? F**k that mean? Who the hell is you to have an opinion on somebody career. Clown!
Fan: I think it’s weird that your teams have been better with you off the court for your entire career and you are probably going to end up with more career points than Shaq That’s what it means
Demar: And it’s weird you live behind a computer, dweeb!
Both parties expressed their perspectives over this bizarre topic creating a random debate. The fan wanted to point out how strange it is that a player clearly significantly below Shaq all-time can pass him in scoring. DeRozan didn’t respect the fan’s opinion and called him out for crafting online basketball takes without having any credibility.
Why The Fan Mocked DeRozan’s Accomplishment
The fan found it disturbing that a player as low as DeRozan all-time could enter the top 10 scoring list. DeRozan wasn’t selected for the top 75 all-time NBA players list a few years back and most would say he wasn’t even on the radar.
It does look strange that DeRozan will top O’Neal and many other names multiple tiers above him historically. However, this mindset could also be used to diminish Kevin Durant recently passing Michael Jordan or James Harden moving higher up on the scoring list.
Scoring lists have nothing to do with overall accomplishments, and the fan singling out DeRozan clearly upset him. Many past eras of stars have to deal with current era players benefiting from today’s game creating more offense to faster past them on the lists. DeRozan barely scrapes the list of wild scenarios playing out via today’s stats.
Was DeMar DeRozan Out Of Line?
Any NBA player going out of their way to curse out NBA fans will put them in the news for the wrong reasons. DeRozan would have been better off ignoring this and not giving it any attention since he’s the one living his own career with strong individual pride.
The fan’s point about DeRozan not being a winning player can be argued both ways. Advanced analytical stats clearly work against DeRozan, but the same debate points are used against objectively great players like Jaylen Brown this season.
DeRozan deserves to combat this thought and acknowledge that he takes pride in his accomplishments. No NBA player can easily enter the top ten all-time scoring list by luck. However, going after the fan for making relatively fair points is not going to work out in a player’s favor.
Joey Haverford Joey Haverford is a seasoned sports content writer with over 12 years of experience. He has covered the NBA, WNBA, MLB, NFL, and professional wrestling in the sports industry. More about Joey Haverford
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