Sports aren’t fair. I don’t care who got the better end of the deal between the Raptors and Spurs, or which team is going to be helped more. The biggest loser in the Kawhi Leonard - DeMar DeRozan trade was friendship, and friendship got robbed.
RIP DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry’s beautiful bromance
Thx for the mmrs.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are my favorite sports BFFs. They won together, lost together, roasted each other in press conferences together. We’re so used to seeing teammates smile at each other, or talk about what good friends they are — but there was something that was just so organic and real about Kyle and DeMar.
Whether they were bickering or laughing, you always knew these two were legitimate, unmanufactured friends — and it felt like they’d be together for a long time, just as Toronto turned the corner from good to great.
It’s why we shouldn’t be surprised that after learning this trade was going down DeMar called Kyle in the middle of the night so they could talk about it.
Talking late into the night is nothing new for them. It’s a nightly occurrence for them, as Lowry told The Globe and Mail in 2016.
“We are on FaceTime together a lot late at night. If I have something to say, I hit him up right away. On the road, I hang out in his room; he hangs out in my room. We have genuine conversations about life. Yes, we sometimes talk about basketball, but we are grown men and mostly we talk about our families, our kids, everyday life. He’s in my Favourites list, so when he calls me, it rings through no matter what.
It gets so much worse too, because trading DeMar to San Antonio means breaking up their kids’ friendship too.
“You see our two kids in pictures at the games hanging out – that’s real. Diar and Karter are best friends. Lots of times, I have to FaceTime DeMar just because the two kids want to talk to each other. It’s one family really – me, my wife, my kids, him, his girl, his kids. My son calls him ‘Mar. They come to my house and the kids play cards and DeMar plays with them. The kids totally destroy the house. It’s fun. I have two boys; he has two girls – we’re different. DeMar has no boys, so in a way, that’s his boy. I see Diar, and I’m all nice around that little girl; I have laughs with her, I joke with her. She just calls me “Karter’s Daddy.”
And now we have the sinking realization that this isn’t just a basketball trade, it’s a life trade — and the cruelest one in recent memory. I don’t care if the Raptors go on to win an NBA Championship because Kawhi Leonard was their secret missing piece, friendship is magic and that is worth more than any title ever will be.
There’s an ancient Greek proverb about friends that I’m reminded of at a time like this:
“So no one told you life was gonna be this way, Your job’s a joke, you’re broke, Your love life’s D.O.A, It’s like you’re always stuck in second gear, When it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month, Or even your year, but, I’ll be there for you, (When the rain starts to pour)”
I’ll never forgive the Toronto Raptors for what they have done.
