{"id":673426,"date":"2026-05-30T03:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/673426\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T03:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:53:12","slug":"i-am-wearing-chucks-in-the-middle-of-december-demar-derozan-talks-about-the-culture-shock-of-moving-from-compton-to-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/673426\/","title":{"rendered":"“I am wearing Chucks in the middle of December” – DeMar DeRozan talks about the culture shock of moving from Compton to Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

DeMar DeRozan<\/a> had an eventful time in Toronto<\/a>, Canada, both as a member of the Raptors<\/a> and a resident. It was a period in his life when he had to deal with a lot of struggles, but also experienced immense growth as an individual.<\/p>\n

The Compton, California native found himself moving up North after he was selected ninth overall in the 2009 NBA Draft by the Raptors following a noted one-and-done collegiate campaign at USC.<\/p>\n

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It entailed so many adjustments, he admitted, but something that he was grateful for as it enabled him to evolve in every possible way. He recalled the stuff he had to go through in his recent appearance on the “Ball in the Family Podcast” of brothers Lonzo<\/a> and Gelo Ball.<\/p>\n

“Oh man, I was f\u2014ked up\u2026 So, like, winter hit. I don’t know how to dress. Dang. I’m wearing Chucks in the middle of December. My toes are cold. Like you know what I mean? I don’t know what to put on, right? Everything was such a learning curve for me because I didn’t know nothing about anything,” DeRozan shared<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It was tough, but it made me grow up fast and it forced me to be in a gym and really hone in and want to get better and better every single day. So it was a gift and a curse at the same time. Because I was missing a family, not having nobody there, but at the same time, it kept me locked in,” he added.<\/p>\n

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Face of the Raptors<\/p>\n

DeRozan spent nine years in Toronto, where he laid down the foundation of what has turned out to be an All-Star career. He was the face of the Raptors, along with Kyle Lowry<\/a>, for much of the 2010s and was solid in that role.<\/p>\n

He was a four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA Team member while in a Raptors uniform. He helped the team reach the playoffs in each of his last five seasons, including reaching the Eastern Conference finals in 2016 against eventual NBA champions LeBron James<\/a> and the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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DeRozan finished with Toronto career averages of 19.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists while establishing Raptors all-time leading numbers in points (13,296), games played (675), minutes played (22,986) and field goals (4,716).<\/p>\n

Given what he brought to the table for the Raptors and the connection he had to the city of Toronto, DeRozan was crushed when the team decided to trade him, along with Jakob Poeltl<\/a> and a future first-round pick, to the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> for Kawhi Leonard<\/a> and Danny Green.<\/p>\n

“It f\u2014ed me up, if I’m being honest. I’m more than comfortable talking about it now, but for the longest time it f\u2014ed me up because that was the place I wanted to be, thought I was going to be, gave everything to,” he told<\/a> the Toronto Star in an interview last year.<\/p>\n

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The trade, meanwhile, turned out to work well for Toronto as it won its first-ever NBA title in 2019.<\/p>\n

Related: “Coach Smith forced him out” – Kenny Smith says he was shocked by Michael Jordan leaving UNC early<\/a><\/p>\n

Post-Raptors career<\/p>\n

Since leaving the Raptors, DeRozan has played for three teams. After spending three seasons in San Antonio<\/a>, he moved to the Chicago Bulls<\/a>, where he had a stellar three-year run, averaging 25.5 points, 5.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds and earning two more All-Star nods.<\/p>\n

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In the last two seasons, he played for the Sacramento Kings<\/a>, one of the veterans for a team once again in rebuilding mode.<\/p>\n

Of late, DeRozan, 36, expressed being open to returning to the Raptors and ending his career there. He, however, wants it to be under a situation where he can still contribute to the team’s cause on the court.<\/p>\n

And for all he did and meant to the franchise, maybe it is something the team can look at and give DeRozan the chance to wrap it all up in the place where he became the player that he became.<\/p>\n

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Related: DeMar DeRozan says he didn’t play his best basketball in Toronto: “The things that I did\u2026”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on May 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DeMar DeRozan had an eventful time in Toronto, Canada, both as a member of the Raptors and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[7329,8174,18427,6411,11653,13756,3013,160257,355,18431,6404,6999,2116,99,192522,12378,213481],"class_list":["post-673426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-demar-derozan","tag-jakob-poeltl","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-kyle-lowry","tag-lebron-james","tag-lonzo","tag-nba","tag-raptors","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-the-raptors","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}