Former Spur DeMar DeRozan crosses incredible benchmark few players have reached

The loudest part of the NBA community has forgotten how to respect and admire the careers of basketball players who have never won a championship. The argument over which players are greater than others takes the air out of the room when sometimes you just want to appreciate the beauty this game presents to the public.

DeMar DeRozan is one of the special players in this league's history, and fans sometimes seem to forget that because he hasn't led a team to the finals. His most recent accomplishment should put that disrespect in the mud (we know that it won't, though).

DeRozan is a certified bucket-getter and one of NBA history's best

Scoring 25,000 points is not an easy thing to do because if it were, more than 27 people would have done it. There have been approximately 5,000 players who played at least one game in the history of the league, so DeRozan is putting himself in rarified air with this achievement. He deserves the respect that comes with it.

The only active players who have reached this plateau are LeBron James, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Steph Curry. Every player listed will go down as one of the greatest this game has ever seen. The next closest active player on the list is Chris Paul. He's over 2,000 points shy of 25K, and he's played almost 200 more games than DeRozan.

DeMar spent three years in a silver and black uniform, so he poured in a significant portion of his points as a member of the San Antonio Spurs (4,455). His tenure was a complicated one due to the circumstances that brought him in, but he gave his all every game, earning the respect of the fans in Alamo City.

SA only made the playoffs in his first season with the team, but that's not all his fault. The team was sending out a team comprised of players who were either too old to make the impact they were used to or too young to know how. In his final season with the Spurs, LaMarcus Aldridge missed a chunk of it before being bought out and joining the Brooklyn Nets.

In the offseason, DeRozan was traded to the Chicago Bulls, and his era in South Texas came to an end. Those were complicated times as a Spurs fan. The residue from Kawhi Leonard's disrespect was still stuck in the fan base's minds, and it closed them off to DeMar in the beginning. But it's hard to keep that disdain up for a guy who didn't do anything wrong and played his heart out every night.

When you watch the six-time all-star play, he plays the game the right way. He gets buckets with a smooth game reminiscent of the old days of hoops. With the three-point shot taking over the league, it's nice to have a guy who still does his work in the midrange, and he scored 25,000 points doing it. That's impressive.