As DeMar DeRozan finished practice on Dec. 19, he noticed one Toronto Raptors higher-up after another -- Bobby Webster, the team's GM and three highest-ranked coaches -- file into team president Masai Ujiri's office. Then someone summoned him.
"I didn't know what the hell was going on," DeRozan recalls. "I thought, 'S---, I know I can't be traded.' It was like I was being called into the principal's office.'"
It was clear by then that Toronto had reinvented its offense after too many playoff stagnations. They had one more hurdle.
DeRozan, a proud native of Compton, California, grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant.