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‘Every true fan and every person that knows me there knows I represented that place more than anybody’
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Published Oct 09, 2025 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 4 minute read
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Drake shares a laugh with Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan after the Toronto Raptors beat Philadelphia 76ers in Toronto. on April 12, 2016. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Toronto SunArticle content
The ongoing war of words between former Toronto Raptors superstar DeMar DeRozan and rapper Drake isn’t ending anytime soon.
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Ahead of a pre-season tilt between the Raptors and DeRozan’s Sacramento Kings this week, Toronto’s all-time leading point-scorer was quizzed on his former team.
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“That’s home, man,” DeRozan, 36, said (per The Sacramento Bee). “That’s where my whole career started.”
DeRozan spent nine seasons in Toronto and helped lead the basketball club during five playoff runs. But after continuous futility in the postseason, the Raptors dealt the six-time All-Star to the San Antonio Spurs in 2018 as part of a trade package for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.
Gone seven years from the team that drafted him in 2009, DeRozan still has fond memories of his time in the city.
“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, so it’s always cool to see familiar faces that’s still there and going against them,” DeRozan said Wednesday.
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During DeRozan’s career in Toronto, he was often seen embracing and laughing postgame with Drake, who is the Raptors’ global ambassador. After he was dealt away, Drake consoled DeRozan. They even posed together, alongside former Raptor Kyle Lowry, on the cover of Slam back in 2016.
“Yeah, day it came out, I went to Drake’s house,” DeRozan said in a 2018 interview with ESPN‘s Chris Haynes. “Me and him sat and talked for a couple of hours. Not even on some hoops stuff. Just to hear the words that come from him being the person that he is in this world, especially in Toronto. What I meant to this city. It was what I needed.”
“No matter what, when it comes to him, he’ll forever have a friend in me and loyalty out of me because he cared,” DeRozan said of Drake in 2021. “He was there for me when everything was kind of going crazy.”
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DeMar DeRozan hugs Drake in Toronto in November 2016. Photo by Craig Robertson /Toronto SunAnatomy of a feud
The friendship came to a grinding halt in the summer of 2024 when DeRozan appeared onstage as rapper Kendrick Lamar performed Not Like Us — a diss number he wrote aimed at Drake during their months-long rap battle.
DeRozan, who also appeared in the music video for the track, maintained that he was still friends with Drake, telling The Sacramento Bee: “Drake’s still my man, still my man, none of it changed.”
But when the Kings were in town last November, on a night the Raptors had circled to honour former star Vince Carter, Drake said it was “unfortunate we’re playing this goof tonight,” referring to DeRozan.
He also said that if the Raptors ever retire DeRozan’s No. 10 jersey, he’ll rip it down.
“If you ever put up a DeRozan banner, I’ll go up there and pull it down myself,” he seethed during an on-air interview.
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Following the game, which the Raps won 131-128, DeRozan heard about the five-time Grammy winner’s comments. “He’s going to have a long way to climb,” he swiped. “Tell him good luck.”
Eagle-eyed fans caught Drake badmouthing the Compton-raised baller throughout the evening. When the three-time All-NBA Team member missed a chance to tie the game at the end, the Hotline Bling star could be seen from his courtside seats waving bye-bye.
After the Kings lost, Drake appeared to slag DeRozan further as he was making his way off the court, calling his one-time pal a “p****.”
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The hatchet doesn’t stay buried
DeRozan hasn’t had much more to say about the fallout, but Drake has continued to taunt his former friend.
At a concert in Australia back in February, Drizzy tossed DeRozan’s Raptors No. 10 jersey off the stage in disgust.
In a leaked song last month, Drake took aim at DeRozan again.
“When you was part of the team we used to be planning our Mexico trips in the spring / we must’ve been dealing in the spur of the moment cause why (Kawhi) did we think you could get us a ring,” Drake raps on National Treasure, a not-so-subtle jab at DeRozan’s playoff failures.
“They bragging about how you went home, the f*** are they on? We threw him away, Pop sent us a real one from Diego and next thing you know we was doing parades,” Drake continues on the track referring to former Raptors president Masai Ujiri making the trade for Leonard.
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Drake seemingly takes shots at DeMar DeRozan in recently leaked song:
“When you was part of the team we used to be planning our Mexico trips in the spring, we must’ve been dealing in the spur of the moment cause why (Kawhi) did we think you could get us a ring.” pic.twitter.com/ZRkqVtbQ0q
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) September 14, 2025
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Taking the high road
The leaked snippet didn’t catch DeRozan by surprise. “I knew about it a year ago, so it ain’t nothing new,” said DeRozan, who scored a Raptors franchise record 13,296 points during his tenure.
But he’ll always have fond memories of his time in Toronto and Raptors fans.
“What I did there, I put my life on the line every single moment I stepped on the court,” he said. “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.”
Read More
Drake vs. DeMar DeRozan: How a longtime friendship ended with ‘p****’ taunt at a Raptors game
Drake bids heartfelt goodbye to Masai Ujiri after Raptors fire team president
Drake jokes about being banned from Raptors broadcasts: ‘I was born to commentate’
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