Reunited with his 'brother,' Spurs' Gay eager for camp to get underway

BALTIMORE, MD -- 8/18/18 -- Rudy Gay at his Flight 22 Foundation High School Showcase. Spurs forward Rudy Gay returns to his hometown of Baltimore to host the Flight 22 Foundation tournament to showcase local youth. Gay's philanthropy extends throughout the city, where he has refurbished playgrounds, partnered with Target to give away gifts at Christmas, and other charitable works.…by André Chung #_AC15159 less BALTIMORE, MD -- 8/18/18 -- Rudy Gay at his Flight 22 Foundation High School Showcase. Spurs forward Rudy Gay returns to his hometown of Baltimore to host the Flight 22 Foundation tournament to showcase local ... more Photo: André Chung Photo: André Chung Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Reunited with his 'brother,' Spurs' Gay eager for camp to get underway 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

PIKESVILLE, Md. – Just two days removed from his 32nd birthday, Rudy Gay walked into a private school gym Sunday in a leafy Baltimore suburb for his Flight 22 Classic looking relaxed, confident and trimmer than usual.

"I feel good," the Spurs forward said. "I feel good about this season."

And for many reasons.

For starters, Gay is finally 100 percent after last season's valiant but often painful return from the season-ending ruptured left Achilles tendon he suffered in January 2017 with the Sacramento Kings.

"Everything is clicking," he said. "I feel athletic again."

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Gay credits his sense of well being to a summer of hard work in the gym and weight room intermingled with his usual full schedule of community involvement and NBA outreach, including playing in the league's Africa Game 2018.

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"I've been working hard, man," Gay said at his boys' high school basketball showcase for East Coast teams he hosts annually. "I lost about five pounds. Last year was a little bit of a struggle for me, so I tried to alleviate that by taking the weight off my feet by losing a couple of pounds through working out and eating better. It's now or never right now for me."

But a bigger reason why he can't wait for training camp to get underway is it will reunite him with DeMar DeRozan, one of his best friends in or out of the NBA.

DeRozan joined the Spurs in July, along with Jakob Poeltl in the blockbuster trade that shipped Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green to the Toronto Raptors.

"That's my brother, man," Gay said of DeRozan. "We talked a lot before this even happened, but since the trade I think we've talked like three times a week."

Gay and DeRozan first met at a lengthy Nike camp in China.

"We were forced to hang together every day," he said.

A couple of years later in January 2013, the Memphis Grizzlies traded Gay to the Raptors. He didn't last long in Toronto – they dealt him to the Kings 11 months later – but it was long enough for him to gain a friend for life in DeRozan.

"I obviously knew (former Memphis teammate) Kyle Lowry, and I gravitated toward DeMar because of their relationship," Gay said. "We have been really close ever since. He's as close to family to me as you can get without being blood."

Gay describes DeRozan, 29, as a kindred spirit.

"He is just like me," he said. "We stay out of the way. We like to just laugh and joke. I don't know. With some people you meet sometimes it's just instant chemistry. I think that's really going to help us this year."

DeRozan left Toronto angry at the Raptors for dealing him from a city and a situation he loved. The four-time All-Star guard enjoyed being the face of the franchise and he felt betrayed when Toronto dealt him after he had received assurances from its general manager he would be staying put.

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Gay understands DeRozan's displeasure with Toronto, but he thinks playing for the Spurs offers his friend a great opportunity.

"It's a new way for him to (forge) a legacy, and I also explained to him he doesn't have to go through customs every time he goes through the airport," Gay said.

All kidding aside, Gay believes DeRozan will fit right in with the Spurs after vowing he would play this season with a chip on his shoulder.

"That's the thing about this whole team – everybody has a chip on his shoulder," Gay said.

"His is just more publicized. But, look, I'm healthy (and have something to prove), LaMarcus (Aldridge) always finds someway to have a chip on his shoulder. Jakob wants to prove he can be a great player. DJ (Dejounte Murray) has a chip on his shoulder because he wants to be known as one of the best at his position.

"But I think we have a great mix of guys, a great basketball team. (Spurs GM) R.C. (Buford) put together a great team. It will be fun to watch."

Despite all the drama surrounding Leonard's mysterious quadriceps injury and his estrangement from the franchise, the Spurs managed to win 47 games last season to reach the playoffs as the Western Conference' seventh seed.

With the Leonard saga behind them, the Spurs will be a "focused" bunch, Gay said.

"This year is going to be different, just knowing who we got and continuing to just grow and become a better team together," he said. "When you have situations like we had last year, there is always something lingering like, 'Are you going to trade him?' Who is going to be packaged in?' We don't have that this year."

Still, the Spurs aren't getting much love from prognosticators, which puzzles Gay.

"Nobody expects us to be good," he said. "I don't know why."

The Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas has even gone so far as to predict the Spurs won't be among the top eight teams in the West, giving them an over/under of 43.5 wins, which would leave them out of the playoffs for the first time since 1996-1997.

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"How is that?" Gay said. "Why were we expected to be so much better last year? Because Kawhi may have come back? He didn't, and we were still a playoff team, really a couple of wins away from being a third or fourth seed in the West."

In June, more than a month after the Spurs lost their first-round series against the eventual champion Golden State Warriors, Gay opted out of the final year of his contract with the Spurs that would have paid him $8.8 million. The move netted him a raise after he re-signed at the start of free agency in July for a one-year deal worth more than $10 million.

"I always knew I wanted to come back," Gay said. "When I opted out, I felt like I had options. But the best option was to just stay where I was at."

Gay gave the Spurs' much-needed scoring off the bench last season, finishing second to Aldridge with an 11.5 per-game average (19.2 per 36 minutes) despite missing 23 games with an injured right heel and never quite feeling 100 percent after the Achilles injury.

With his health restored, Gay believes he'll be more productive in 2018-19.

"Last year was a great task for me, not just physically but mentally," he said. "Now that I have accomplished that and got past that, I can just become a better player."

But his main goal is to return to the playoffs for just the third time in 13 seasons.

"They don't have many expectations for us," Gay said. "But the Spurs always exceed the expectations. Don't expect anything less this year."