How DeMar DeRozan got over being traded and embraced the Spurs

SAN ANTONIO -- As Rudy Gay chomps on a sandwich in the locker room ahead of the San Antonio Spurs' exhibition opener, DeMar DeRozan points an iPhone his way to reveal a FaceTime chat with former Toronto Raptors teammate Kyle Lowry.

"What he say?" Gay asks between bites.

"You're f---ing dead to me," DeRozan whispers back.

Belly laughter quickly envelops that corner of the locker room, just a few steps from the door. DeRozan has come a long way from heartbreak.

"It took a while for me to get back in that happy place," DeRozan says, "where I didn't care about much in the sense of like, 'Just be happy, man. Just be yourself. Don't worry about all that other stuff.'"

Maybe it's also that the more…