Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan shares how he struggled mentally before signing a 3-year, $81.9 million deal with the Bulls during the 2021 free agency
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Free agency is a rough time for most players in the NBA. Unless you’re a superstar being chased by all the teams, you rarely get a deal within the first two days. In 2021, DeMar DeRozan faced the same ordeal as his contract with the San Antonio Spurs ended.
DeRozan was a superstar-caliber player with the Toronto Raptors before he got traded to the Spurs for Kawhi Leonard. This trade had him question his footing, and in turn, his entire game. DeMar’s averages took a tumble, causing his averages to fall from over 24 ppg in Toronto to under 22ppg in San Antonio.
Deebo was approached by the Lakers in free agency, and it looked like it was a done deal. However, the Lakers weren’t planning on signing him for a long-term deal, and that became a point of issue for both parties. While the Lakers kept DeRozan hanging, they went and traded for Russell Westbrook. This messed with DeMar’s mental health severely.
“I was in a depressed mindset”: DeMar DeRozan
On the Draymond Green show, Deebo talked about his free-agency experience.
“It didn’t go as planned. That kind of brought so much doubt in it for me and put me in a dark place because I started to question like, ‘Alright, where am I going now? What player am I going to be?’ So many of these questions started to creep in and a lot of people didn’t realize, big names kind of always sign in the first day or two. I think I went a couple days into free agency with still such a question mark. Was I going to go somewhere with a one-year deal? Was I going to take the minimum? The narrative… put me in a f***ed up place, honestly.”
“I remember through that whole time — it was three, four days in a row — I didn’t leave out the room, I didn’t see the sun set, I didn’t see the sun come up. I was depressed. It put me in a depressed mindset because I didn’t know what was going to happen. Was I going to come to LA? That fell through and didn’t happen. You seeing guys sign other places. Everybody hitting me, like, ‘What you going to do?’ And there were certain moments where I had no (expletive) clue what I was going to do.”
Chicago saw past that doubt and signed him on a 3-year, $81.9 million contract.
DeMar decided to use this doubt as fuel and fired up the jets. In his debut season with Chicago, he put up 27.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.9 assists a game. Deebo earned his 5th All-Star nod and a 2nd All-NBA 2nd team recognition.
Thankfully he’s in a much better space now, having made a name for himself in Michael Jordan’s home ground.
