San Antonio Spurs: DeMar DeRozan shares how he found out about trade

Now through his first few weeks in his new home, DeMar DeRozan shared the story of how he found out he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs.

The blockbuster trade between San Antonio and Toronto quickly shifted the direction of the two franchises. With shooting guard DeMar DeRozan coming to the Alamo City, head coach Gregg Popovich quickly went to work establishing a refined offense that best utilized the skills of his new All Star.

While the gears turned in San Antonio, DeRozan’s life was turned upside down. After years as the franchise cornerstone in Toronto, the four-time All Star was torn from his best friend in point guard Kyle Lowry and a team that catered to his abilities.

In an interview with Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Abrams, DeMar shared the story of where he was when he found out he was traded from the Toronto Raptors.

He was hungry, so he went to get something to eat at a Jack in the Box. In the parking lot, he got the call telling him he had just been traded to San Antonio. “It just caught me off guard,” he says. “I sat in the Jack in the Box parking lot for, like, two hours just trying to process it all, like just trying to process the whole thing, and it just tripped me out honestly, just trying to figure it out, but that’s how I found out. Midnight, sitting in the Jack in the Box parking lot for about two hours till I went home.”

There are few worse places to have your life rearranged than a Jack in the Box parking lot.

DeRozan is one of few athletes to open up about his battle with mental health and depression over the course of the last year. He was set up in what he could consider an idealistic situation in Toronto but general manager Masai Ujiri didn’t carry the same sentiment.

The trade caused some mental hurdles for DeRozan to overcome personally but he seems to have landed on his feet. Luckily, he arrived in a place ready to embrace him for who he is both on and off the court.

DeRozan has become the focal point of the team’s offense adjacent to All NBA power forward LaMarcus Aldridge and is in the midst of what my be his best season yet. The 29-year-old is putting up 25 points, 6.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists on 50 percent shooting from the field.

Now that the next chapter of his career is officially underway in San Antonio, DeRozan has found a new path toward solidifying his legacy as an NBA great.

Before making any further changes, DeRozan needs to drop the Jack in the Box in favor of some Whataburger to truly embrace his new city.