Draymond Green tried recruiting DeMar DeRozan to Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
In the summer of 2021, DeMar DeRozan was having a tough free agency.
He had plans to return to his hometown (Compton) and put on the gold and purple to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. But, those plans quickly fell through when the Lakers acquired Russell Westbrook via trade with the Washington Wizards.
With no ideas in mind and no one calling his phone, DeRozan fell into a depression. But, on the Draymond Green Show, Green admitted he lent a helping hand to his friend in need.
“What about this? What about that?” Green said. “So then the conversation started to like, ‘Yo, come to the Warriors.’ And you were like, ‘F–k, no, I’m not coming. I’m not coming to play with y’all.’ But, you come to the Warriors? We can win a championship if you come to the Warriors. He didn’t come.”
Despite having a cushy opportunity to go play for the Warriors and what would have been his first and only championship, he quickly decided against the Kevin Durant route. (Durant signed with the Warriors unexpectedly in 2016.)
It’s interesting to know DeRozan had the chance to suit up alongside Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in what would have been a deadly starting rotation.
Nonetheless, the 2021 offseason spread a lot of despicable talk about DeRozan. Talk of his age and his overuse of shooting midrange shots led people to believe he should accept playing down in a veteran’s role off the bench.
“The thing that really pissed me off most, and aside from our relationship that made me call every day. Are you going to take a minimum? People were like, ‘Are you going to take a minimum?’ I mean, even when I called you, talking about ‘You should come to the Warriors,’ I wasn’t talking no minimum. A minimum!”
Thankfully, the Bulls’ front office knew DeRozan had plenty left in the tank. They signed him to a three-year, $82 million deal that paid off quite well last season.
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He averaged a career-high 27.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists last season. He shot 50 percent from the field, 35 percent from three and 87 percent from the charity stripe.
That got him All-NBA and All-Star honors.
Rest assure, despite other teams’ impression of DeRozan, he fits in nicely with the Bulls.
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