DeMar DeRozan Makes Bold Claim About Raptors Title Run

Getty DeMar DeRozan, Kawhi Leonard

After trading DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, the Toronto Raptors won their first title as a franchise in 2019. However, DeRozan believes they would have won anyway without the trade.

On ESPN’s First Take, DeRozan gave that team credit but believes their fortune would have remained the same had he stayed.

“Never to discredit those guys. They won it. They deserve it. I finally had got to a point where I was happy for them. But for sure. I definitely feel like that,” DeRozan said.

DeRozan then explained what the Raptors’ biggest obstacle was before they won the title.

“The only person we couldn’t beat was LeBron. That’s just what it was. I felt off the year we had before, we just needed one more piece to kind of push us over the top. That piece came to be LeBron going to the West and I didn’t get an opportunity to see what would have happened. But the upmost confident in myself, I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would have happened.”

The Raptors fell to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018. Toronto completed the trade with the San Antonio Spurs after James joined the Los Angeles Lakers the following offseason.

DeMar DeRozan Called Himself ‘Sacrificial Lamb’

While the Raptors were on their way to winning the title. DeRozan gave his candid thoughts on watching them win in 2021. In short, he believed the Raptors’ success started with what he became in an interview with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks.

“Honestly, I don’t think I even said this — I probably said it to my own inner circle — but if it wasn’t for all the years and groundwork that I did before then, none of them things would’ve been possible. Yes, I fought, I sacrificed, I pushed the limits to where I had to be the sacrificial lamb.

“You just have to sit back and understand, like, you know, you are the reason so many things was even possible.”

DeRozan also admitted whether he felt more hurt or angry when the Raptors traded him.

“More hurt because, you know, being invested from 19 to — I was what, 28? Everything you learned was from there. Everything you gained was from there. So for that to be gone like that, when you least expect it, it just throws you off guard. You know, we human at the end of the day, and it definitely hits you.”

DeMar DeRozan Helped Bring Toronto to New Heights

Though he never took the Raptors to the level that Leonard did, DeRozan brought the Raptors to a level the franchise had never seen before.

Before DeRozan entered the fray, the Raptors had been to the second round once in franchise history in 2001. With DeRozan, they made three consecutive Eastern Conference Semifinals and one Eastern Conference Finals. The Raptors have not replicated that success since Leonard’s departure in 2019.

DeRozan may not have guided them to the promised land, but his assertion that the Raptors would not have gone as far as they did without him has some validity.