Written by Bruce Arthur at Toronto Star.com
Kevin Durant was never coming to Toronto. Well, that’s not entirely true. There was a brief flicker a few years ago when he very quietly signaled a willingness to keep the door open, just a crack. And then it closed.
In the end, there was no better option for the Raptors than DeMar DeRozan. If Durant wanted to come here, he would be here. They would send a private plane and give him anything he wanted. But this era’s premier scorer is entertaining offers in the Hamptons, king of whatever he deigns to survey.
DeRozan, however, has never gone away. The 26-year-old shooting guard has stayed a Raptor through the tough times, into the good times, and now he has signed the richest contract in Canadian sports history, thanks to the NBA’s summer of money. The Raptors met with DeRozan just after midnight eastern time in Los Angeles on July 1, their first opportunity, and he agreed to a five-year contract worth $137.5 million U.S. A full max deal — like those being handed out in this NBA as if they’re loot bags at a children’s party — would have run $153 million U.S.
This is not an unalloyed victory for the franchise. DeRozan’s game is flawed. He has asked people up to and including LeBron James for tips on how to become a more efficient player, and he has done so, mostly by getting to the rim and the free throw line more. But he is still a midrange gunner in a threes-and-drives game. He is fearless, which is a blessing and curse. In Game 7 against both Indiana and Miami, DeRozan carried the Raptors for stretches, but he also took 32 and 29 shots, and made 10 and 12, respectively. He is a volume scorer who is below average defensively. He is still improving. We’ve all been over this ground before.
But DeRozan loves this city and this franchise, and re-signing with the Raptors has not always been a sure thing. He has always spoken about his desire to do things his way. All season, the loudest screaming pulpit-holder at ESPN would bellow that DeRozan wanted to be a Laker, he wanted to go home, and it was just so much empty air, dissipating into the sky. DeRozan, at the end of the season and before, always made it clear.
“I never seen someone do something and said I want to do it that way,” DeRozan said at the end of the year, after the entire playoff opera was in the books. “I want to do it my way. For the longest time, there was no surpassing Vince (Carter), and in my head for the longest, I always told myself, I’m going to have an opportunity to be one of the greatest Raptors of all time, to do something that hasn’t been done yet, to do something that hasn’t been dreamed of.
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