The Toronto Raptors did not hold a practice with media availability on Wednesday. Instead, they made Dwane Casey available via conference call. I wasn’t going to post the usual news and notes, but Casey spoke in such a touching way about DeMar DeRozan and his situation with his sick father, Frank, that I wanted to pass some quotes along.
Casey noted that Frank sent the Raptors a video from his hospital bed that brought tears to the coach’s eyes (he is not the first Raptors staffer to admit as much, either). Here’s Casey when asked about DeRozan playing through everything he has going on:
I love him. To me, he’s like a son as far as just watching him grow up in the last seven years from a snotty-nosed kid in Compton to the man he is now and taking on the family responsibility he’s taking on and still playing. My hat is off to him from that standpoint because he’s got a lot on his plate right now, probably more than you and I or any of us will ever know. From a coaching standpoint and an organization standpoint, he has our support and freedom to go back and forth whenever he can to see his dad. His dad sent a beautiful message video we showed to the team that, I mean, it brought tears to my eyes,anyway, to let the team know that he was pulling for the team. And he did that from his hospital bed. DeMar, he’s doing a great job for what he’s going through in his personal life.
The coach was asked a follow-up question about the kind of example DeRozan is setting by juggling basketball and real life:
Huge. They understand the personal side of what he’s going through with his dad, but not only his dad, taking over being the patriarch of that family. Making sure his dad is well taken care of, he’s getting the care that he needs back in L.A. All the players understand it, they know it, they respect it, I respect it and appreciate him fighting through it. There is life other than basketball and there’s real-life stuff. Other players recognize and hopefully they’re taking note to say hey look, even though we all have personal stuff going on away from basketball, we still have a job to do, and he’s still doing his job here at least for two hours a day, two-and-a-half hours a day with his basketball job.
The team isn’t going to provide updates on the health of DeRozan’s parents, but it’s great that he has their support to go back and forth as needed. (And it’s clearly not having a negative impact on his play, if he has been.) Be sure to keep showing the DeRozan family support wherever you can.
Notes
- There wasn’t much else of note that you didn’t hear after the game on Tuesday, but a quick sampling:
- On operating as a favorite now instead of an underdog: “Very comfortable. That’s kind of the growth process of our program. A few years ago, we had to have that mentality, that chip on our shoulder mentality, or else. So we’re growing, I think our guys are developing a mental toughness that you have to have to be the favorite. And there’s gonna be situations, I don’t know who’s gonna have us favored. I think our guys are very comfortable in that role, I’m comfortable in that role as far as having the mental toughness to be the favorite. Again, it’s not so much how I feel, it’s how our players feel, and I think they’ve grown into that mentality. I think it coincides with the growth and establishing ourselves as a top seed of the conference.”
- On Jonas Valanciunas guarding small-ball lineups and accepting it when he doesn’t get to: “I was just watching film with Jonas and talking to him about there’s certain small lineups that it’s very difficult for him to guard unless he’s just dominating on the other end. And there are some small lineups that he can match up with and he does an excellent job of being out there and covering, and there’s a certain lineup that we don’t mind with Washington to keep him out there on the floor. That’s the situation he’s in, his lot in life right now. He’s getting better, he’s much better now than he was early in the year at guarding some of the smaller fives, some of the teams putting their fours at the five position, spreading the floor on us, and there’s some that’s very difficult for him. JV is beginning to handle it much better mentally than he did earlier, because sometimes he can’t understand why he’s not out there, and he’s just such a competitor and wants to help the team win.”
- There was no Fred VanVleet update.
- You still have a few weeks to apply for the Wayne Embry Fellowship:
https://twitter.com/RaptorsMR/status/986665572258627584
- You can vote for DeRozan’s dunk on Anthony Tolliver in the NBA’s Dunk of the Year voting by going to NBA.com or using #DunkOfTheYear DeMar DeRozan.
- The Raptors return to practice-as-usual tomorrow.
