OAKLAND—Under the championship banners in the crumbling old doomed arena, the Toronto Raptors got ready to play. Oracle Arena is located off a highway in one of California’s dry faded patches of nowhere, and it’s the centre of the NBA universe. And the Raptors are here.

And as they prepared for the latest biggest game in Toronto’s franchise history, some people were thinking of DeMar DeRozan. Because he wasn’t in the building, and they were.

“He’s probably the reason we’re here,” said Kyle Lowry.

Lowry is, of course, DeRozan’s best friend; the two have stayed in close contact since DeRozan was traded to San Antonio in July last year, for Kawhi Leonard. The trade was a big part of the schism between Lowry and team president Masai Ujiri, which was only put to rest in a meeting before the trade deadline.

And the deal was the thing. Kawhi’s playoffs have been spectacular, king-of-the-world stuff. He’s slowed some as the defensive attention has ratcheted up, but his ability to rise to the moment, his will, his defence, have shown that he is among the very best players in the world.

And to get him, they needed DeMar and everything he had built.

“Honestly, I don’t even think I said this — I probably said this to my own inner circle,” DeRozan told Bleacher Report in an interview released Tuesday. “But if it wasn’t for all the years and groundwork that I did before then, none of them things would’ve been possible.

“Yes, I fought. I sacrificed. I pushed the limits to where I had to be the sacrificial lamb. You just have to sit back and understand like, you’re the reason so many things was even possible. To their credit they probably felt like it was time to see what we could get to make that next jump.”

DeRozan talked about his love for the city and the franchise when he returned in February, but this was the first time he truly addressed the substance of the trade.

“Nothing he said was wrong,” said Lowry. “I watched the video, and nothing he said was wrong. I truly believe that if he wasn’t as good as he was, the franchise wouldn’t be in this position. You wouldn’t be able to trade for a guy like Kawhi. You wouldn’t be in that position if he hadn’t grown as an individual, you know what I mean? I truly believe that he’s a big part of the growth of the organization.”

It’s the subtext for all of this. DeRozan wasn’t going to hit the shots Kawhi has hit, or lock up Jimmy Butler or Giannis Antetokounmpo. If and when Kevin Durant returns from his strained calf in this series, Kawhi will be the weapon to counter him. He might be unleashed on Steph Curry in late-game situations. Kawhi, as a player, is giving everything to the Raptors while he’s here.

But DeMar had to max himself out to make that happen. DeRozan stubbornly improved in his own way every year, learning to pass, to create, polishing his Kobe-like offensive footwork. His defence remained a hunting ground, his three-point shooting an aspiration, but he rose up high enough to warrant a second-team all-NBA nod in 2018, finishing a distant eighth in the MVP voting.

And that was enough. San Antonio’s relationship with Kawhi had disintegrated after their disagreement over how to deal with his quadriceps injury; the Raptors had reached the end of the rope after being swept by Cleveland for a second consecutive year. The Raptors cast about for DeRozan trades that included deals that would have resulted in future value only. But the Spurs didn’t want to rebuild in coach Gregg Popovich’s later years, and engaged on DeMar.

So the Raptors are in Oakland. There was a thought after the Milwaukee series that DeRozan might make the trip for one of the games here, to see Kyle and the other teammates he has kept in touch with, encouraged and roots for. He won’t. But he’s happy for them.

“He texted me after the conference final. That’s my guy, man,” says Raptors centre Serge Ibaka. “You know some people they say they’re happy for you, but you could tell, he was really happy. Some people say they’re happy just for the camera, you know what I’m saying? They’re happy for the camera. He was really happy. He texted me, and I’m not the only one. That’s our guy, man.”

“He’s really excited,” said Lowry. “He’s really happy for us. I mean, I talked to him this morning.”

Before the series, Ujiri gave a nod to the former coach and his former all-star, both of whom were jettisoned after last season. Ujiri said, “This is not something that started in one year. I don’t know that a team can just start in one year. So I think, I want to say that Dwane Casey and DeMar DeRozan are a part of this, they are part of our journey, and how far this has come.”

He was right, too.

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“He knows no matter what, no matter what we’re doing now, the legacy of DeMar DeRozan with the Toronto Raptors is never going to change,” said Ibaka. “Nothing’s going to change it. He proved himself, he put himself in that position with his hard work, his professionalism, with his love for the team and the city of Toronto. So that’s not changing.

“He proved himself. And things happen in life, change happens, that’s something you cannot control. But the things he could control, he did it at a high level. And that’s something — everybody, fans, players, we should be proud of that. You can see it. I was there, I lived there and I saw it every day. We and the fans are focused on this moment, but they know, they’re never going to forget what DeRozan did for them.”

Wednesday night the Raptors will try to move a game closer to a championship. They couldn’t get here with DeMar. But they wouldn’t be here without him, either.

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