One current NBA star is apparently the anti-Kevin Durant.
Chicago Bulls swingman DeMar DeRozan appeared this week on Draymond Green’s podcast for The Volume. In the episode, Green revealed he tried to recruit DeRozan to the Golden State Warriors last year, only to be spurned.
“Talking to you every day like, ‘Yo, you good? Yo, what about this, what about that?'” said Green with DeRozan opposite him during the podcast. “Then the conversation turned to like, ‘Yo, come to the Warriors’, and you were like, ‘F—, no. I’m not coming there. I’m not coming to play with y’all.’
“‘We can win a championship if you come to the Warriors,'” Green further says he told DeRozan. “You didn’t come. But we still won a championship [even if] you didn’t come … Had to throw that one out there.”
The seven-time All-Star DeRozan also explains in the interview how he ended up with Chicago instead and how his free-agency situation last summer affected his mental health. You can watch it in full here.
In the end, both sides got what they wanted. DeRozan got a hearty payday (three years and $82 million) plus a featured role in the spotlight, neither of which he would have gotten in Golden State. But the Warriors, with Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole and a returning Klay Thompson on the wing instead, won the NBA title, which was their fourth in the last eight years.
Soon to be 33 years old, DeRozan is one of the most respected players in the league among his peers. His refusal to take the easy route despite still being without a championship ring will probably earn him even more respect.
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