TORONTO — Kyle Lowry was awakened around 2:30 a.m. by the buzzing sound of his phone. He moved too slowly to answer, being careful not to disrupt the sleep of his younger son, Kameron, who managed to sneak his way into the bed that July evening. But before he could be upset about the missed call, Lowry saw that DeMar DeRozan was calling again and knew it had to be something serious. Lowry picked up in a panic, “What’s up, dog?”



DeRozan was sitting alone, in the parking lot of Jack In The Box, shocked, angry and despondent upon hearing that the Toronto Raptors were trading him to the San Antonio Spurs after dedicating all nine years of his career with one organization. DeRozan shouted, “Yo…” into the phone and Lowry sat quietly, giving DeRozan all the time he needed to vent. If he hadn’t gone through his own experience with the heartache of NBA business early in his career — when the Memphis Grizzlies drafted his...