As the NBA's up-and-coming players continue to hone their craft by partaking in Summer League activities, some of the league's more established stars opted to join other basketball leagues this offseason.
The Drew League has been around for several years as one of the premier non-sanctioned leagues during the NBA offseason, with professional players mostly hailing from Southern California often joining the league to keep themselves busy and warmed up prior to the NBA preseason. Toronto Raptors superstar and Compton native, Demar DeRozan, has been a mainstay of the Drew League himself.
But more recently, DeRozan hasn't been all smiles at the SoCal event. Floaternews had just shared a YouTube clip of the six-foot-seven scoring whiz throwing a ball at a referee during a Drew League contest this past week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPweJ3KpHX0
Article Continues BelowAs BallIsLife pointed out, it appears that DeRozan was irked by the number of bad calls that he and his team were getting from the officials during the supposedly friendly affair.
While DeRozan's actions in a somewhat meaningless game can be viewed by some fans as immature, it's also a welcome sight to see the 27-year-old, three-time All-Star remain competitive and driven to win even outside of the big leagues. Or, maybe DeRozan is really growing some fangs in preparation for the new NBA season, especially considering the years of suffering that he and his Raptors have endured come playoff time.
Either way, the fire that DeRozan brought into the Drew League this past week should still be taken as a positive if the Raptors are to be taken seriously. Toronto's been considered as one of the Eastern Conference's true playoff contenders of late, but a re-ignited DeRozan may just be the X-factor that the team needs to secure its first-ever NBA Finals appearance this season.