I'm no stranger to pain. It's what made me.

DeMar DeRozan

Categorized in : Me Made Stranger Pain

If you work for it, you'll deserve what comes. Hard work.

you hard-work deserve work

My mindset was that I was always going to be in Toronto my whole career, but I was never naive.

career never always mindset

You gotta be able to take criticism if you want to be anything close to great. Even if it's not true. You use that as an advantage for yourself. You can use that negative energy and turn that into an energy that drives you to be something more than you thought you could be. That's one thing I did.

yourself great you negative

I came up different; I took a different route. I want to lead my own path.

own my-own path want

I don't care who you are. You can be the smallest person off the street, or you could be the biggest person in the world. I'm going to treat everybody the same - with respect.

you respect care world

I didn't want to be regular. I didn't want to be this type of player, how everybody else play. I always try to learn and just be better so I could be different, y'know, instead of being content like a lot of people I've seen were.

be-different better try people

I stay standoffish in a sense, in my own personal space, to be able to cope with whatever it is you've got to cope with.

own you my-own space

I don't care what shape, form, ethnicity, nothing. I treat everybody the same.

treat dont-care nothing care

Other people gotta be told when to go to the gym, what to work out, what to work on, what to do. For me, it was always my own self-motivation of maybe just wanting to make it out of Compton. I was like that with everything in my life.

my-life me work life

My dad always played sports. He played football. I always wanted to play football because my dad played football, but my mom never wanted me to play football because she said she couldn't take me getting hit.

me dad football sports

Growing up, I didn't have a lot and always wanted things. But I was too prideful to ask for anything; I always worked for it.

anything things always growing-up

Day 1, when I was drafted to the Toronto Raptors, they had this stigma on them: Every guy leaves. Nobody wants to be here. Superstars, nobody wants to play in Canada. From Day 1, my whole mindset and approach to the game, being in Toronto, was I wanted to change that whole narrative to that whole organization.

nobody day game change

It's one of them things that no matter how indestructible we look like we are, we're all human at the end of the day. We all got feelings... all of that.

end-of-the-day end day look

We're all human at the end of the day. That's why I look at every person I encounter the same way.

end-of-the-day day look way

I don't try to be nothing I'm not. I'm not flashy. I'm just me.

nothing just try me

I've never been one who wanted any type of attention, good nor bad.

never bad good attention

Me and my mom are just alike in every type of way. I talk to my mom about everything.

everything me mom way

I told myself that if I went to Compton High, and I made something out of the school, it would mean something to me later down the line because I started everything. And future kids would say, 'DeMar made it here; why can't I?' I wanted to stay home.

myself me future home

My mom's one of the toughest ladies I know. I've seen her lose both her brothers, both her parents. She's been through a lot, and to see her get up every day and put a smile on her face, that shows nothing but strength.

face day smile strength

I'm sure there's a long list of one-time all-stars, and I don't want to be on it.

list sure want long