DeRozan recently opened up about the experience on The Pivot Podcast, and he revealed that the whole situation messed up his mental health a lot. “It f**ked me up, I’m being honest,” DeRozan said. “It’s crazy, I’m more than comfortable talking about it now but for the longest time it f**ked me up because, one, that was the place I wanted to be, thought I was going to be, gave everything to like my whole motivation and drive was to simply put Toronto on the map. I wanted to follow the whole motto of, you know, Kobe [Bryant], my favorite player, I wanted to play on one team, I had it all mapped out, so when I got traded it was such a blow because at the time I was dealing with my family stuff, like you said, that was when my dad first started getting sick. That was the first time in my professional career where I just felt like out of it, I felt lost. I started to question every single thing.” -via Clutch Points / May 21, 2024