DeMar DeRozan, the kid from Compton, Calif. who once professed “I am Toronto,” is close to no longer being a Raptor.The team’s longest serving and most successful player, who morphed from a shy teenager drafted by the Toronto Raptors into a four-time NBA all-star, is part of a franchise-altering trade for disgruntled San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard.According to multiple overnight reports, the Raptors and Spurs could finalize the deal as early as Wednesday morning; whether other parts are included was not immediately clear.For Raptors president Masai Ujiri, the trade continues a summer re-make of a team coming off its best regular season ever that was once again slaughtered in the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers.Ujiri first fired Dwane Casey, the team’s most successful and longest-serving head coach and replaced him with Nick Nurse, one of Casey’s assistants.Now Ujiri is on the verge of dealing away the 28-year-old DeRozan, who embraced his role with the franchise, the city and Canada like no other Raptor ever has.DeRozan has always said he wanted to spend his entire career in Toronto and twice eschewed any serious look at free agency to remain with the Raptors. He sits atop, or is right close to the top, every significant statistical category. But his impression on the team runs much deeper than that. His willingness to stay here, the inestimable skills that made him an Olympic champion and one of the most dangerous shooting guards in the league today, combined to make him unique in franchise history.“Be told one thing & the outcome another,” DeRozan said in an Instagram story posted in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. “Can’t trust em. Ain’t no loyalty in this game. Sell you out quickly for a little bit of nothing.”Leonard, limited to nine games last season because of a recurring quadriceps injury, isn’t “nothing” but he is a bit of a question mark right now.He ...
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