Note: This article is a translation of GQ Sports journalist TYLER R. TYNES and does not represent the views of translators and platforms
Introduction: He is considered a resurgence of the NBA's "hero ball" era, experiencing painful trades in his second home Toronto. Now he's the best finisher in the league and the leader on the Chicago Bulls' road to revival.
It wasn't until DeRozan finally relaxed that our conversation really took on meaning. The bitter cold in Chicago forced him to stay at home, and the post-training treatment left him sore and curled up on the couch in the mansion he bought from Jordan's ex-wife, Juanita. The black silk headband was tightly tied to his beautiful braids, and he was wearing an undershirt that looked very comfortable. We've been talking about people who hate him – they've been saying for years that DeRozan will never be a star worth testing. People who hate DeRozan think he's not good at analyzing what's going on in the league, or even isolated. They see mid-range as a product of the last NBA era, which is no longer so important in the modern era. DeRozan just smiled at this point and said, "I always hear things like that, and I like it when people tell me what I can't do." ”
DeRozan told me he struggled not to look back, and I saw him think about it before mentioning the late star Kobe Bryant. In his friendship with Bryant, Bryant often told DeRozan: "Be your true self — making yourself happy before you do anything is the first priority." Bryant also stressed that the most important thing is not to let anyone shake you, and never let your mind change when you walk alone on a fantastic journey that others can't understand, and DeRozan gets strength from these words. When he was a child, Kobe Bryant was his idol, so these words became a creed that he would always stick to. The only thing he needed to know was that he was taking the right path. If he trusts Kobe, and Kobe tells him to be strong, then how can he care what other people think?
DeRozan said: "I firmly believe in this, and this can be traced back to my morality and outlook on life. ”
These breaches did not happen overnight. When he entered the league, fans thought he was an inefficient imitation of Kobe Or Jordan, a good player but not a great player. In a group of extremely talented basketball talents — people like LeBron, Andetokounmpo, Curry, just the name can make a splash — DeRozan feels like a supporting character. After all, he was the chip he used to trade Leonard, something that happened after James eliminated him and the Raptors from the playoffs for three consecutive years.
In 2018, after DeRozan was traded to the San Antonio Spurs, a magical scene happened: DeRozan was enraged, and he changed a lot. Unlike before, whenever after a playoff loss, DeRozan would train alone in an empty gym, which he considered his home. He wanted to reinvent himself, and at this stage of his career he had enough patience to do the heavy lifting that was necessary. So DeRozan learned from Popovich and held on to unbelievable times in positions he himself did not anticipate. Last summer, De Rowe favored being a free agent, and he came to the Windy City. To everyone's surprise, he became the closest successor to Jordan that Chicago fans have ever seen. Everyone thinks so since he played here.
This shift tends to happen only in movies. DeRozan will have an astonishing score every night (averaging 27.9 points per game, no. 4 in the league), an incredible performance (he is now the only player in league history to shoot the winning whistle ball in two consecutive games), a way to win that we are satisfied with and that we never expected. Now, DeRozan is the league's best finisher, an All-Star starter and the leader of the rising Chicago Bulls, who have seen him as an indispensable member of their own. He's the best player on one of the best teams in the league, the successor to Jordan — and no one but DeRozan would have thought about what's happening now.
He said: "You will only laugh, when I understand how hard I try, how can you tell me what I can't do?" ”
DeRozan began to show me this incredibly beautiful mansion with 5 lifts, 4 fireplaces, and a heated garage for 3 cars. As he scurried through his wardrobe in the best Rudder orange blouse he could buy with his money, even he could not hide his feelings. He smiled softly when he saw me staring blankly at a section of stairs that seemed to lead to heaven.
"Poof!" He interrupted himself and took a few seconds to regain his overly calm personality. In fact, DeRozan and everyone who knew him were waiting for the moment to come. He can confidently say to the league, "I said I could do it." DeRozan has been playing in the league for 13 years now, he's now the best team of his career, and he's even seen the dawn of a championship. DeRozan said it was the happiest time he'd had in years. This is very important for a person who uses basketball as a place of life and refuge.
DeRozan finally had a chance to fight back, and don't think he didn't see you say bad things about him all these years. Aren't you saying I can't get a foothold in the Modern League? I don't care about you. I don't have analytical skills? I don't care about you. Can't be the face of the new generation of Chicago Bulls? He was too busy laughing to answer the question.
"Man, it's really been a crazy season," DeRozan said.
DeRozan grew up in Compton, California, full of temptations, gangs, drugs, crime, and obstacles that a boy must overcome to really grow up—and it won't be long before his life is like any other story. Ultimately, he just wants to enjoy life as much as he can.
DeRozan said: "I know very well what I live on. I know what happens when you walk down the street, you see five or six people walking in front of you, what are you going to do? Cross the road and change roads? Or turn around and walk over with your head down? No, for me, I always walk forward with my head held high. If you can't look a man in the eye and look away, you've made your position clear. ”
The reality he describes is that so many people are crowded between urban war and poverty. Every day there are new temptations, new trials in every corner. "If you're at Compton and you see these things every day, you have to try to find any positives that you can rely on," he said.
So what does DeRozan rely on? "It's always been a sport," he told me, "and it's always been basketball." After having all this, he found that his life could also bloom with beautiful things. Basketball gave me endless fantasies and gave me a glimpse of a future farther than Compton. So, he started imitating the vague Lakers game he saw on local TV. When he was six, he recreated moments of shooting at home: making a back-up jump shot at a nearby trash can with a paper ball, sliding around his bedroom with a pivot foot, imitating those great men. For a few seconds, the gunshots faded from his mind, as if he hadn't been born in Compton.
"He went through a lot of things, he grew up in the war zone," DeRozan's coach Chris Fall told me. "His desire and pursuit is to make his family and others better off, which is the purpose of his hard work and what he wants."
Nothing could give DeRozan such momentum. While he was still at Compton High School, his teacher said he had no chance of leaving the city. His father, Frank, taught DeRozan to play basketball and asked him to imitate Gary Payton. Frank was strict with DeRozan, he had to. Because if DeRozan wasn't ready, then life would be hell, at least for now, deRozan thinks so. There was a time when DeRozan also hated the way his father treated him as a child, and it wasn't until later that he understood this.
"Life won't give you any sympathy," he told me. "It doesn't care if you're sad, whether you're happy, doesn't care about anything. You have to be able and willing to get through it. ”
If DeRozan wants to achieve something, he has to work hard. Luckily, he was ready to do so. Life at Compton made him the embodiment of fortitude, the totem of tenacity, and it was this tenacity that made life in Black America both hard and joyful. Compton lived in his heart, pushing him forward, and the drums in his heart only allowed him to walk through the world in this way.
DeRozan himself admits: "If I did something different than before, I might not be able to sleep at night, and that's what's in my heart."
DeRozan's most flattering trait is the way he discusses responsibilities, and whoever you ask anyone who knows him will tell you that deRozan remains loyal as always, regardless of the outcome — and many times he does better than that. So, the reason he decided to go to college was simple — to become a Star of Earth at the University of Southern California. At first, he commuted back and forth between school and home every day because he didn't want to leave Compton behind— even if it was only 20 minutes away. DeRozan said: "I never wanted to follow the way other people do things, I only cared about my own way. ”
Still, the private university has had a huge culture shock to DeRozan — a huge shift compared to his past habits. "I've been going to school with gang members all my life," DeRozan said with a sigh. "Suddenly, my classmates around me changed, and they talked about borrowing Mom or Dad's Mercedes every day. The correlation between these two worlds seems so unreal. "DeRozan feels lonely in his new environment." I don't have a common topic with them, and vice versa. I always feel like I'm misunderstood by them, talked about by them, or they see me in a different light, which is really scary."
It's not just that DeRozan can't mingle with USC kids, it's that he doesn't even know how to adapt to his new environment. DeRozan said: "It was a disturbing calm. Growing up in the past, you've grown up accustomed to the chaos of everyday life, and even if you're noisy around you, you're used to it, or numb. But all of a sudden, all around you are birds, sunshine and palm trees. "This freaked DeRozan out." When you walk out and it's too quiet outside, there's an eerie feeling. I'm just trying to get used to that quietness. ”
Truth be told, living too calmly scares DeRozan, and being away from chaos makes him anxious. "You have your own trauma, and when everything around you becomes too peaceful, you try to put yourself in a self-destructive state of mind," he said. DeRozan needs basketball to stop his wild thoughts and calm the storm in his head: "Basketball is everything to me, it can free me from a lot of things and spark my passion for the game." "He's starting to notice that through basketball, he can go to the good schools, the cities, the gyms he's dreamed of. Basketball also feeds his family, and family is everything to him.
"At that time, I just wanted my family to be proud and happy, that's all I cared about," he said. If you see your family going through so many difficult, dull days, then you definitely want to be the light in their hearts. ”
In 2009, DeRozan spent his final season at the University of Southern California, and the Toronto Raptors selected him in the first round. In the beginning, DeRozan came to the Raptors and was not understood by the fans, and the Raptors were just a team that was just starting out. Not only that, but the Raptors are also the only team in Canada. For DeRozan, a 19-year-old who grew up in California's sunny climate, a climate he had never experienced before. Still, DeRozan went north that summer, and he was so excited that he forgot to bring his winter coat. Luckily, Jarrett-Jack put him in a Canada goose coat.
DeRozan laughed and said, "I've never felt as cold as toronto. Damn, everything needs to be tried and tested. Nor did he expect toronto fans to welcome him that way, and for a country that prefers hockey to basketball, DeRozan is a basketball beacon. Truth be told, the city needs a player like DeRozan, a player who can constantly dedicate himself to the greatness of Canadian basketball, and his passion in the game is enough to make you forget the defeats of Vince Carter and Chris Bosh. DeRozan is a fierce scorer on the court, and after coming here, he even volunteered to recruit players to come to the North and see what he has here — look at the ambitions of the Toronto Raptors.
In 2012, the Toronto deal came to Lowry, and DeRozan finally had a partner. Later facts showed that DeRozan not only had a partner, but also gained a very good friend. DeRozan said, "He's very enthusiastic," and then laughed and said what really reason he liked Lowry: "He's an asshole too. "With the Raptors emerging as strong contenders for the Eastern Division, Lowry and DeRozan's efforts have received a lot of support. DeRozan is a North Philadelphia guard with a pit attitude, and he naturally swears about the best players on the basketball court. He mingled with Compton's children as a child, but grew up to be a silent killer.
DeRozan said: "Together we made history. ”
Lowry said to me: "DeRozan is very competitive, he is always thinking about how to get better in the next season. The fans are always suspicious of him, and he is constantly proving that his suspicions are all wrong. Don't him off, he'll off your scolding and don't care. "DeRozan surprises people who know him when he gets angry. Lowry laughed and said, "One time he yelled at me on the pitch and I was as surprised as someone who was angry the first time he saw him. One thing that is very important for DeRozan is respect. “
Regarding respect, you have to be passionate enough to get it. You have to work hard willingly — even if you're tired, you have to be determined enough to get them done. Being away from home allowed DeRozan to do just that, saying, "Even if I don't want to work, I have to work, even if it's just to pass the time." This is probably the greatest gift God has given me: to be able to play in a country other than me that no one else wants to come to. “
DeRozan isn't putting on a show: Even after being beaten by James in the playoffs, he very much hopes that the Toronto Raptors will succeed. He wants Raptors fans to feel the feeling of victory, and the reason for the victory is that the team has selected a hero. DeRozan said he dedicated his entire body and mind to Basketball Canada.
As long as the ball is still in DeRozan's hands, he can shoot again and again, no matter what is in front of him. When he first arrived in Toronto, he was an untaught rookie with a strong desire to shoot, and even the discredited JR-Smith would advise him to shoot less. But under DeRozan's leadership, the Raptors have become a rival to be reckoned with in the regular season, and DeRozan has become a regular on the All-Star game. For the first time in so long, DeRozan had tasted sweetness.
However, the Raptors traded him.
Even the best players don't get all they want. DeRozan said: "Everyone is going to be in this situation, I'm never frustrated by it, I'm motivated. It is these things that have made me who I am now. In 2018, the Raptors failed to break through the James barrier and lost to the Cavaliers for three consecutive years. But DeRozan refused to give up, and he went into the gym to prepare for another attempt. Toronto Raptors president Massa Ujerry also assured him at a dinner party in Las Vegas that he would come back and take the shot.
Later, one evening in the summer of 2019, DeRozan received a call from Massa that he had been traded to the Spurs, and the news would be announced in the morning. DeRozan was sitting outside a burrito shop and crying, saying, That moment was like,, it was a very heavy blow, very heavy. In that moment I felt all the negative emotions, anger, resentment, frustration. "He thinks his relationship with Toronto has gone beyond the contracts they've signed, but that relationship is slipping away from him." All the negative emotions you can think of, I can feel, and it took me a long time to understand them. ”
On the side of the road, DeRozan picked up his phone and cried loudly, while Lowry listened on the other end. Lori told me: "He was upset, really upset. That's my brother. Later, I didn't speak for about five minutes – just sat there talking to him on the phone, you didn't know what to say, he never thought he would be traded. For the two of us, how to say it, it's 'damn'. ”
Lowry knows this well, saying: "Bad things happen, but for DeRozan, pouring so much into a country, a city and a team that people don't want to go to and don't want to stay with, pouring out his heart and soul, this thing really hurt him. ”
DeRozan is also sad to be behind the scenes, but the disaster is not alone, around Christmas 2018, his father fell seriously ill. For the next three years, he traveled back and forth to and from the hospital. DeRozan never stays in the same place: he leaves Compton, flies to San Antonio or the Spurs' playing field, and then returns after the game. Frank said he would never waver if DeRozan was ready to meet the challenges of the world. But no one can be prepared to lose their father, right?
DeRozan's voice began to tremble, he began to choke, and he could no longer control his emotions when he mentioned his father, Frank. He said: "In that moment, I just wanted to be a person full of power. "Frank is the only person deRozan is both fearful and respectful, but now he is slowly aging." I want to be a mentally strong person, I want to be the kind of person my family needs me to be and let them keep pushing me forward. ”
The long nights are endless, and DeRozan has only the friendship of Lori. "Basketball was his only way out, and playing basketball was the only time he didn't want Frank," Lowry said. Even though the Raptors won the championship without DeRozan, Lowry hasn't forgotten what he and his brother contributed to the Raptors.
Lowry said: "He's been cheering us on and I talk to him every day, both before and after the game. He will genuinely cheer us on because he cares about us and he is such a person. "His father had been lying in a hospital bed. Lowry said: "Nobody knows this because he's a hero. He does not show his pain and weakness to everyone, he always bears everything silently alone. ”
In a way, DeRozan's success in Chicago is the result of more than a decade of reinventing himself — a forced metamorphosis. He's not perfect, but he has to do it for his family, for his friends, for the team, and for Frank. DeRozan — who was entirely on his own, as he was at Compton as a kid, at the University of Southern California as a teenager, when he first came to Toronto as a rookie, when he didn't even know how to wear winter clothes — began to hone himself. Spurs coach Popovich said after a recent game: "His eyes are always full of determination. ”
A year ago, Frank passed away. DeRozan lost his love of the sport and the people he loved the most. For a while, he was aimless, unsure of what else he could do.
The only thing to do is to continue what he has been doing: keep fighting.
"Resilience, man, that's what I learned from him," DeRozan said was the last lesson he learned from his father and a lesson he recalled over and over again, "he taught me how to get through it." ”
He lifted his head and looked ahead, as if he were back in the neighborhood of Compton. "Don't feel sorry for yourself," he said. "What's the only way you can get through it?" It's about working hard to prove what you need to prove, not to others, but to yourself. ”
In the end, DeRozan's three years at the Spurs weren't so bad, and what he learned from Popovich turned him into an unstoppable force in Chicago. Popovich didn't want to change DeRozan, he just wanted to give full play to DeRozan's strengths, improve where he wasn't good at, control where he liked on the court, think more about his teammates, and completely reduce his three-point shots. DeRozan said it was the most vulnerable period of his career. If he feels like he just wants to prove that all the people who hate him are wrong, then it doesn't have to be, he just wants to open up a different side of himself. He doesn't care how Popovich arranges him, he just wants to win the game.
DeRozan said: "If you are vulnerable, then you will complain about a lot of things, which makes me accept everything that I did not expect. I'm going all out and going forward. "For him, the pace of the game started to slow down. Previously, he would shoot 40 times in a game if he felt the need, but now he is learning to analyze and control the game, more often as an organizer, trying to pass the ball in the bag. In his final season with the Spurs, he averaged 6.9 assists per game, easily reaching a career high. "Playing at spurs opened up a comprehensive, broad world for me and made my performance even better."
In the summer of 2021, DeRo was in favor of a free agent, and he was finally happy again. In a game with the Bulls last March, Chicago All-Star Center Nikola Vucevic walked up to DeRozan standing next to the free throw line. The two players overlapped their time at USC by just one year, and it had been years since they had played together.
"You're a free agent now," DeRozan remembers Vucevic saying. "Let's make this clear." It felt like a match made in heaven: Mark Eversley, now the general manager of Chicago, was the one who picked DeRozan in Toronto. When summer came, they met and discussed the future. "He knows everything about me in basketball," DeRozan said. "He knows I'm going to blend in smoothly and they want me to be myself." The conversation was short. Eversley told him: "Be yourself, let's kill out and win the game." That's what DeRozan wanted to hear.
I look at DeRozan in this big house and think about scoring for the best team every night in the best season of his life, and I find many aspects refreshing. DeRozan helped Compton rise to fame as a man of balance, not just for himself, but also to prove to all who hate him that he still belongs here. Redemption can be an interesting motivator, and the 32-year-old DeRozan is unlikely to be an old-fashioned man who has simply reinvigorated the legacy of basketball. His offense was filled with unbelievable whistle balls, and each time he scored as if he were saying, "Fuck you," as a tribute to his hometown.
"The only thing that matters to me now is to win, and that's the only way I'm going," he told me. "That's my only satisfaction."
As we talked, DeRozan was slowly changing his clothes, taking off his undershirt and changing into a more sturdy hoodie and jacket. He tightened his headband, grabbed his backpack, and prepared to go. At this moment, it dawned on me why Fall liked to quote a 1975 interview with The Rings magazine about Muhammad Ali, whose toughest moments were always when blows he never expected came. Farr used this anecdote to describe how DeRozan overcame difficulties on his all-Star path. It also explains what no one expected this year, as he attracted the attention of the league.
Farr sees DeRozan as a living example: when a man is knocked down, he can get back on his feet. Farr said: "He made people believe, he did. Man, that almost makes me shudder. ”
Be true to yourself, this is Kobe's advice, very clear. DeRozan, the path you choose may end up making you a champion. DeRozan said: "After going through everything you have experienced, sometimes you have to go through failures so that you can understand and appreciate your comeback path. After tasting what it's like to fail, then get back up in a sincere way – you'll be grateful for every step you've taken, even those bad days. When you fail all the way, when you think you're at the top, you'll be even more grateful for it all. ”
原文：Reintroducing the Marvelous DeMar DeRozan
Compiler: Ah Shuai