Toronto Raptors All-Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan recently opened up about his battle with depression and anxiety in an interview with Doug Smith of the Toronto Star.
DeRozan, 28, had publicly addressed his depression by referencing a Kevin Gates lyric in a tweet on February 17th, which read, "This depression get the best of me."
Speaking with Smith, DeRozan praised his mother for always reminding him not to judge others because "you never know what [another] person is going through."
“I always have various nights,” DeRozan said. “I’ve always been like that since I was young, but I think that’s where my demeanor comes from.
“I’m so quiet, if you don’t know me. 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.”
"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," DeRozan told The Star. "We all got feelings ... all of that. Sometimes ... it gets the best of you, where times everything in the whole world's on top of you."
DeRozan also explained how basketball helps him get through dark times in his life and how growing up in Compton, California helped him refrain from turning to alcohol and drugs, which also motivated him to be a better father to his two daughters.
“This is real stuff,” DeRozan said. “We’re all human at the end of the day. That’s why I look at every person I encounter the same way. 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.
“...I had friends that I thought was perfectly fine, next thing you know they’re a drug addict and can’t remember yesterday...I never had a drink in my life because I grew up seeing so many people drinking their life away to suppress the (troubles) they were going through, you know what I mean?”
Now in his ninth season in the NBA, DeRozan was recently named an All-Star for the third straight season. Averaging 23.9 points, 5.2 assists and four rebounds per night, he has led the Toronto Raptors to an Eastern Conference-best 41-17 record.