How DeMar DeRozan got over being traded and embraced the Spurs

by Michael C. Wright | Oct 31, 2018, 08:46 AM ET

Portrait of DeRozan by Nik Soupe.

LOCAL GRAFFITI ARTIST Nik Soupè, 45, was at his studio, scribbling a sketch of Spurs point guard DeJounte Murray, when he heard about the trade. Soupè could sense the pain in DeRozan's reaction immediately following the trade.

Having already painted a mural of Spurs legends Manu Ginobili, Popovich, Tony Parker, David Robinson, Tim Duncan and George Gervin, as well as LaMarcus Aldridge, Patty Mills and Murray at south side restaurant Rudy's Seafood, Soupè kicked around ideas with owner Roland Ramirez.

"I asked, 'You think it's cool if I paint this?'" Soupè says. "He was worried about how fans would react. But for better or worse, DeMar is a Spur now. And after reading his reactions to the trade, he was obviously upset. This is San Antonio. The mural was like, 'Welcome to the table, let's have a beer.'"

So, two days after the trade, Soupè spent an afternoon studying around 15 images of DeRozan. The next day, Soupè toiled eight hours in the heat, exhausting 10 cans of spray paint to craft an 8x6 mural of DeRozan that captured "a look of fierceness and determination."

When DeRozan first saw images of the mural on Instagram while working at his basketball camp in Victoria, British Columbia, he hadn't yet stepped foot in San Antonio as a member of the Spurs. Definitely fake, maybe even photoshopped, he thought.

Then, the image went viral.

"To see that, it really gave me one of those feelings where it was like, 'Damn, they love me like this already?'" DeRozan says. "It gives you that extra hunger to go out there and do something for the fans and make them feel better than I felt in that moment."