DeMar DeRozan was a fan favorite in Toronto, and all of Canada for that matter, but it wasn't just from the fans. Beat writers also had a fond respect for him, and it was because of the way he treated them.

Doug Smith of The Star wrote an article about everything DeRozan meant to him, not just as a player but also as a human being and brought up a story about DeRozan texting him while he was in the hospital, something most players must not do.

“I remember getting unsolicited texts, or quick replies to ones I sent from a hospital bed at Toronto General during the playoffs that ranged from “man, you gotta get better and get back, miss you” to “yeah, Dougie, we got this, tell ‘em not to worry.”

Smith also talked about how hurt he really thinks that DeRozan is because he really believed that he could play his whole career with the Raptors, and it's something that he really wanted to do.

It was his normalcy that I think hit a nerve with the people, I know it did with me. He truly enjoyed being sort of from Toronto, by representing the Raptors, by being someone a country could be proud of and embrace.

All those times he said he wanted to play his entire career here, he was absolutely speaking from the heart. It was not lip service. Trust me, he desperately wanted to be the guy who played 15, 17, 20 years here and was an indelible mark on Toronto and Canadian basketball history.

But the chances of doing that are now gone, and the Raptors have a new star in Kawhi Leonard and DeRozan now has to get used to wearing the jersey of the San Antonio Spurs.