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DeMar DeRozan: Today’s NBA Players Too Caught Up In ‘Getting on Phone, Worried What Others Saying’

Originally posted on Hoops Wire | By Sam Amico | Last updated Jul 24, 2025 5:08 PM ET

Sacramento Kings wing DeMar DeRozan says there’s one noticeable change since he first started playing in the NBA.

“(Players) always getting on their phone worried about what other people saying,” he said on Carmelo Anthony‘s 7PM in Brooklyn podcast. “I’ve seen a (expletive) put his name in the Twitter search to see what other people were saying at halftime.”

Nowadays, that is actually a lot more common than most fans seem to realize.

“That was never a thought when we was playing,” DeRozan added. “There was no social media, none of that. It’s that part of the game that sucks the energy out of you because everybody is so worried about everything else now instead of what it was built on, your game, competing, winning, giving everything you got.

“Everybody is so caught up in all the stuff that don’t matter. What I’m wearing, (expletive) in the mirror fixing all that, exfoliating before the game. … Everything used to be built on wanting to compete the (stuff) you do on the court, now it’s so much everything you do off the court that seems much more important.”

DeRozan, 35, first entered the NBA in 2009, shortly before Twitter and Instagram took flight, and long before TikTok. Now, all are among the most trafficked websites and apps in the universe.

Anyway, DeRozan touched on multiple other topics, including how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder may be bringing back the midrange game. It’s a style that’s enabled DeRozan to flourish, and he said an increase in its popularity should be considered a good thing.

“It goes back to where I never want young guys that’s coming up to feel discouraged like they have to go out there and be Stephen Curry,” he said. “Everybody just not gonna be Steph Curry. There’s only one Steph Curry. He’s incredible.

“From my standpoint, I try and be a statesman when it comes to the midrange to show if you’re great at this, you can still be successful. It still can take you a long way. It’s a blessing to this day when I’m top 25 of all-time in scoring.

“I can’t believe it but I stuck to me being myself. I didn’t let nobody change that, I just worked and tried to be great at what I did. Don’t be discouraged from it because you see everybody doing all this other stuff.”