DeMar DeRozan was only a easy child from Compton when he was drafted to Toronto within the 2009 NBA Draft.
Gang violence and dying had been throughout him throughout his childhood and if a desk subsequent to him at college was empty for too lengthy, nothing wanted to be mentioned.
Leaving all of that behind, the Raptors gave DeRozan a assure that if he was the quantity 9 decide, the franchise would draft him.
DeRozan explains the wild flip of occasions that ensued as a result of he’d by no means left the US earlier than.
“So I had to go sit my ass down at the federal building and get a passport a couple of days before the draft,” DeRozan mentioned on Podcast P with Paul George.
“That’s how it worked out. I didn’t have a passport, nothin’ and the crazy thing – my whole first year I was by myself because nobody in my family had a fu*king passport.”
In that first yr, DeRozan averaged 8.6 factors, 2.9 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 77 video games.
The basketball court docket wasn’t the one place he was a rookie.
“Wintertime comin’ round, I’m wearing chucks in the snow,” DeRozan continued.
“Bro it was crazy.
“I was still eating gyros off the fu*king side of the street, that was my dinner.
“I was thuggin’ it. That’s for real…I didn’t know…My first couple of years in the league, everything is such first that nothing somebody could tell you could prepare you for it.
“You gotta go through it. You know what I mean?
“And those moments for me was everything, honestly.”
When the Raptors drafted DeMar, he was a one-year school participant from USC who had simply turned 20 years previous.
Now, he’s a six-time All-Star and is among the most clutch gamers within the league enjoying for Chicago.
READ MORE: The Battle for The Number Two Draft Pick – Who Will Prevail?
