I grew up a Toronto Raptors fan. From childhood, watching Damon Stoudamire light up guys two to three heads taller than him, the Raptors were infused in my blood. Most of my friends watched and played hockey. I suppose I liked that too but nothing could match basketball in my mind. It was the best sport and the Raptors were the best team.

Except for the fact that they really weren’t. Through most of my childhood and teenage years, the Raptors ranged from flat out terrible to mediocre with a few good times sprinkled in between. Vince Carter’s rise to NBA superstar was the biggest Canadian basketball moment for a very long time. The following messy divorce was easily its lowest moment.

From Vince, Chris Bosh came to carry the torch. For a handful of seasons, we got to watch CB4 do his thing on the court while every analyst south of the border managed to ignore his contributions to the league. He was rarely mentioned along the regular names as one of the best big men in the league. It didn’t matter that he could routinely drop 24 and 10 on a team because nobody watched him do it. Much like the tree in that imaginary forest, was Bosh really excelling if nobody saw it?

While Raptors fans showered him with enough love on their own, it wasn’t enough for Bosh. When his chance to hit the open market came around, Bosh saw the opportunity for success in Miami and took it. A lot of fans were upset but I understood his decision. Nobody was giving him his dues, he may as well have taken the better chance at career success instead. It was a tough blow for the franchise that suddenly fell into a dark place once more.

Amidst Bosh’s departure, the Raptors suddenly belonged to nobody. There were no marquee names or potential superstars. The Raptors were essentially in the same spot the Cleveland Cavaliers found themselves after LeBron James also departed for Miami… if slightly less terrible. In that time of uncertainty, one young player took to twitter to assure the Raptors fans that everything would be fine.

Up until this point, DeMar had played exactly one season with the Raptors. He had some exciting dunks and showed some flashes of brilliance but he was incredibly raw. He had finished the season averaging 8.6 points per game. How could DeRozan possibly think he would be the answer in the post-Bosh era of Toronto basketball?

What people didn’t know back then about DeMar, is that he modeled himself after Kobe Bryant, both in style of play and work ethic. With no star left in Toronto to carry the mantle, DeMar saw it as his time to shine. Over the summer, he worked incredibly hard to advance his game to another level, hoping to fill-in Bosh’s rather large shoes.

The road to success wasn’t going to be easy for Toronto. I specifically remember the first game without Bosh. The start of the 2010–11 season. It was in Toronto against the New York Knicks and their newly acquired star, Amar’e Stoudemire. The last player announced in the Raptors’ starting lineup? Jarrett Jack. It may be the most depressing starting lineup announcement in the history of the world.

To nobody’s surprise, the Raptors lost that game, and many more throughout the season. If 60 wins are a good way to mark an impressive season, so too are 60 losses for depressing seasons, which is exactly how many the Raptors piled up.

Still, there were some things to be hopeful about amidst a lot of losing. DeRozan put together 26 games in which he scored 20 or more, compared to only two such games the season before. In an April 5 loss to the Knicks, DeRozan put up 36 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Noticeably, DeMar looked a lot more comfortable going to the rim as he doubled his free throw attempts per game going from 2.5 to 4.9.

After the team’s performance, head coach Jay Triano was fired. In his stead, the Raptors went to Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Dwane Casey. Fresh off a championship performance in which Casey’s defensive schemes featured a prominent role, he would now be tasked with leading a team that didn’t really have any foreseeable blueprint.

Those early Casey years were not easy for anybody on the Raptors, DeRozan included. It makes sense that a coach who came up through his ability to teach defense would demand it from his own teams. It took a while for DeRozan to really gel with the new style of play Casey wanted to trot on the court. This resulted in a 2011–12 season that was about the same as his previous year. It should be mentioned that the lockout may have also had a big hand in throwing off his development.

Prior to the 2012–13 NBA season, DeMar re-signed with the Raptors to the tune of four years and 38 million dollars. This deal was highly panned by a lot of people following the team. Why give that much money to a dude who really only dunked and shot free throws?

Nobody knew quite how much DeRozan wanted to make himself into a household name. Even as he gained financial security, DeRozan never stopped working on his game and improving his skills. That didn’t go unnoticed with Coach Casey,

He and [assistant] Eric Hughes have put in more time in the gym than anybody — but that’s what you’ve got to do to be not just good, but great.

With a new contract and a lot to prove, DeRozan made some strides in the new season but things were complicated when the team went out and acquired Rudy Gay in a trade. It was a desperate move made by the team’s GM, Bryan Colangelo, in an attempt to save his job. Not that Gay wasn’t a good player, he just happened to play essentially like DeRozan. Both guys liked to drive to the rim. Both weren’t good long distance shooters. Both players did not necessarily excel at the defensive end of the court.

When both players took the court together, there wasn’t enough room for either of them. Defenses could collapse onto them without fear of retribution from downtown. That isn’t to say there weren’t some good times along the way. Rudy made his share of clutch shots during his time as a Raptor.

Before the Rudy Gay trade even happened, DeMar hit his first game winning basket against the Orlando Magic. It’s a play, and a call by Matt Devlin, that still gets me pumped up to this day. It became a precursor of what was to come.

It should also be noted that the 2012–13 was notable for DeMar for one other reason: prior to the start of the year, the Raptors swung a trade with Houston for Kyle Lowry. While it took some time for Lowry to make his way into the starting lineup, he would soon become an integral part of the Raptors identity and a huge reason for DeRozan’s emergence in the NBA.

Going into the 2013–14 season, almost everybody wanted Toronto to just tank and mortgage their present for the future. The team fired Bryan Colangelo and managed to get Masai Ujiri from the Denver Nuggets. Ujiri had a proven track record for getting teams back into the swing of things and people expected a lot of change to come with the Raptors.

The 2014 NBA draft was going to feature Andrew Wiggins, a Canadian phenom who had been touted as the next LeBron James since hitting high school. People wanted to see a Canadian starring for the Raptors because the team as it was composed, was heading nowhere fast.

Almost immediately, Ujiri found a trading partner for the long maligned Andrea Bargnani. The former first overall had shown some flashes of brilliance as a Raptor surrounded by a lot more moments of pure disappointment. Somehow, Ujiri managed to send Bargnani to the Knicks for a pair of draft picks. It was a coup then and it’s an even bigger coup now.

Bargnani may have been the first domino to fall but it didn’t look like he would be the only one. In early December, Rudy Gay was sent to Sacramento for a bundle of lesser players who could fill out the bench. There had been much debate amongst Raptors fans between DeMar and Rudy. Everybody knew somebody had to be traded but fans couldn’t decide who was better to keep moving forward. Masai quickly saw what both had to offer and made that decision for everybody.

In what would have completely changed the future, Masai quickly narrowed in on another deal; this one to send Lowry to the Knicks. The team’s owner James Dolan veto’ed that potential trade, probably still licking his wounds from the Bargnani trade just a few months ago.

Recently, DeMar has gone on record that if Lowry had been sent out of Toronto, he would have asked for a trade too. Hell, if Lowry had been traded away, it’s very likely that trade request or not, DeRozan would have been on a new team and the Raptors would have fully embraced the rebuild mentality.

Knicks fans may hate Dolan for constantly messing up their franchise but for Raptors fans, Dolan is something of a savior. After the Lowry deal was nixed and Gay was suddenly gone, something magical happened. With a fully loaded bench and DeMar given the opportunity to really be the man for the first time ever, Toronto started winning.

At the time of the Rudy trade, the Raptors were 6–12 and clearly one of the worst teams in the league. They ended the 2013–14 NBA season with a record of 48–34. DeRozan broke out as a potential star and made his first all-star appearance. It was looking like things might be brighter than ever for Toronto basketball fans.

In a lot of ways, 2014–15 was a stepback for both the Raptors and DeRozan. In a game against the Dallas Mavericks, DeRozan hurt himself and that injury would cost him the most games he has ever missed in his career. Coming back from said injury took a lot of work and he never really found his footing. The sweep at the hands of Washington in the playoffs certainly didn’t help things.

Not known for their ability to remain calm under duress, Toronto fans started clamoring for Masai to implode the team after the sweep. Fire Casey! Trade everyone! Now that they had tasted success, simply making the playoffs wasn’t exactly enough anymore.

It looked like the team was at another impasse. Lowry was suddenly on the open market and DeRozan would be in a year’s time. If Ujiri was going to opt to change the team’s roster, now would be the time to do so. Instead, Ujiri doubled-down on his guys. Lowry re-signed with the Raptors and Casey was kept around. It upset a lot of fans but the status quo was to be kept.

DeRozan knew that he needed to bounce back to his all-star form and he did just that. He made his second all-star team, became a much more effective all-around offensive player, and with Lowry as his co-pilot, took the team to within two games of the NBA finals. The Raptors finally broke through those playoff hurdles and put together a nice run.

All of this came at a beautiful time for DeMar. He was an unrestricted free agent coming off an all-star season. His hometown Lakers had the cap room to get him to head back west. Throughout the season, everybody was so sure that DeRozan was going to LA. He’s a Compton guy they said, he’s going to relish the chance to show out at home.

Once again, people don’t know DeRozan, a fiercely loyal guy with an intent to blaze his own path. On July 1st, 2016, the very first day DeMar could have taken meetings with other teams and explore his options, DeRozan signed a five year deal with the Toronto Raptors. The thought of leaving his NBA home had never come close.

In doing so, DeMar became the first ever Toronto Raptor to sign a third contract with the team that drafted him. Vince Carter and Chris Bosh saw the chance for greener pastures, DeMar ensured to keep the grass he was currently standing on green. All those years of heartbreak and lost stars were suddenly righted when DeMar signed his name on that five year deal.

The morning after signing his lucrative 137.5 million dollar contract, a familiar face could be seen on the court, working on his game. Even after becoming one of the highest paid players in the league, DeMar simply could not stop trying to become better.

With that kind of money, it would have been easy for DeMar to rest on his laurels but his 2016–17 campaign was his best one yet. He came out of the gates firing on all cylinders. Through the first 12 games of the season, DeRozan put up 33 points per game on 50% shooting from the floor.

In the past, DeRozan had been an excellent scorer but this was him putting everything together. While he was not able to average that many points all season, DeRozan played well enough to merit his first All-NBA selection and entrench himself among the elite shooting guards in the NBA.

If DeMar’s scoring has dipped slightly this season, every other facet of his game has improved. With the Raptors embracing a new style of play, prioritizing ball-movement over isolation plays, DeRozan has been asked to become more of a facilitator. It’s a role he has embraced almost immediately and the results have been obvious. He’s averaging over five assists per game while maintaining the same turnover rate he’s had the last few seasons.

Not only is DeMar finding his teammates more often, his defensive efforts have been noticeably more enthusiastic. He may not be elite at the end of the floor but DeMar puts in the effort against his man and gets the job done.

Possibly the most noticeable improvement in DeMar’s game has been his willingness to shoot the three. 55 games in, DeMar has already eclipsed his previous career high for threes made in a season. Through practice and even more practice, DeMar has finally gotten over the mental issues that plagued him from downtown. While he will never be Steph Curry from three point ranger, the mere fact that defenders now have to worry about DeMar pulling up opens his entire game within the arc; and that’s where DeMar shines.

Say what you will about mid-range shots, they will always have a place in basketball. In the NBA, you won’t find any player more capable and willing to make it rain from an area that most teams now deem ineffective. DeRozan is an elite mid-range shooter and with his newfound ability to hit threes, in addition to his team’s new offensive schemes, DeMar seems to find some open space in the middle more than ever.

When you consider those two skills and add his footwork and ability to get to the line, DeMar becomes a nightmare to guard. Back in his prime, nobody could touch Kobe Bryant’s footwork and nowadays, I would contend that DeMar is on his idol’s level. Watching him meticulously work his way into his spots is a thing of beauty.

This weekend, the All-Star game will tip off in Los Angeles. DeMar DeRozan will be playing in it for the 4th time, his third time as a starter. As a rookie, DeMar had the chance to participate in the festivities through the dunk contest. He wasn’t even invited for the rookie-sophomore game. It goes to show you how much work he’s put into his game to reach the level he currently belongs… among the NBA’s best.

Unlike his previous all-star games, this one will mean even more to DeMar. He gets to be recognized as an all-star starter in his home state, in front of his friends and family. He gets to stand in front of his childhood representing the colors of a city DeMar considers a second home.

If Bosh felt like he never got enough credit for playing in Toronto, DeMar reveled in it. His whole life, DeRozan has been proving doubters wrong. He’s just a dunker. He can’t dribble. He’s just a scorer. He can’t shoot threes. He doesn’t make teammates better. For every criticism DeMar has heard along the way, he’s spent countless of hours in the gym addressing them.

Now, DeRozan stands atop Raptors lore. Carter may have shined slightly brighter and Bosh may have put up bigger numbers but nobody accepted the title of Toronto Raptor more than DeMar DeRozan. Through the tough times, he has been the voice and image of an entire generation of Canadian basketball fans. Standing on the precipice of an Eastern Conference breakthrough, DeMar will do his best to lead his team to its first ever NBA finals. Whether he makes it or not, he was right to tell us not to worry because as it turned out, DeMar got us.