In that vein, I’ll follow your lead and share the fact that I suffered from depression pretty severely in high school, so I definitely appreciate the value in you sharing your story. But when you talk about making an impact on people you didn’t know, I wondered if there were stories that you didn’t share that played a part in your choice. DeMar DeRozan: Yeah, I remember when I was playing with San Antonio (after the Raptors traded him to the Spurs in the summer of 2018), I was walking off the court, warming up before the game in Denver, and a guy pulled me off to the side. He was sitting courtside. I didn’t know if he worked for the organization or what, but he just stopped me. I could tell through his conversation and through his greeting with me that whatever he was going to say was very heartfelt. And I just remember him telling me (how) his son was very suicidal. I was one of his favorite players. And when I came out telling my story, it changed his whole perspective, and he opened up and spoke about a lot of things he was dealing with. Something like that hit extremely hard. I didn’t know the dude, and I’ve never seen him again. It’s crazy because every time I go to Denver, I always see if I’m gonna see the same guy again. But I just remember him pulling me to the side telling me that my story helped save this son from being extremely suicidal. So that was definitely touching.
by Hoops Hype