That was the message from DeMar DeRozan to his former Bulls teammates leading into the big reunion showdown on Thursday.
Oh, they picked up, and then some.
Thanks to 35 points from Coby White, as well as Nikola Vucevic falling two assists shy of a triple-double, the Bulls outlasted DeRozan and former teammate Zach LaVine, beating the Kings 128-116.
Before being traded to the Kings last summer, DeRozan spent his three seasons with the Bulls, almost a big brother to the likes of Patrick Williams, Dalen Terry and White. Or as DeRozan would often insist, they were his “step-sons.”
That entailed a lot of rookie-veteran moments in which the rambunctious cubs would try and agitate the aging lion. Just because DeRozan was now on the West Coast and with the Kings, that wasn’t about to stop.
That’s why the group chat was humming, and the trash talk was alive and well on FaceTime.
DeRozan was discussing new Bulls guard Tre Jones and the time they spent together in their Spurs days, and let it be known that, “Tre is my guy. Love Tre. I told guys when Tre got (to the Bulls) how cool of a guy he was. Everybody loved him. I think he jumped on the FaceTime the other night, talking trash to me. We had a good time in San Antonio.”
When asked whose phone the FaceTime occurred on it was easy to figure out the leading suspect.
“Yeah, it was Dalen,” DeRozan said with a smirk. “My baby boy always answers. He knows pick up the phone when daddy calls.”
That’s the thing about DeRozan. He might be gone from the Bulls, but he’s not forgotten. He’s made sure of that and so have his former teammates.
“Rooting for all those guys, honestly,” DeRozan said. “I watch every single game when we don’t play. Even if we’re playing at the same time, I check the box score and see how guys do. Obviously, I still talk to my sons every day, make sure they’re making their bed and everything. It was great to see just Coby (White) thriving the way I knew he would be. You know working out with him every summer, seeing how much he loved the game, how much he put into it, it was dope to see.
“In the group chat (Wednesday) night, I was talking trash to Pat (Williams) and DT (Terry) just about them having nightmares last night by the time they laying down just thinking about guarding me. So it’s fun and it’s a different type of excitement you have going against familiar faces.”
And DeRozan wasn’t alone.
Not only was DeRozan traded to Sacramento in the summer, but former Bull Zach LaVine was reunited with DeRozan in early February, sent out in a three-team deal that landed the Bulls Jones, Kevin Huerter and Zach Collins.
LaVine finished with just eight points in the loss, while DeRozan had 22 and became the 27th player in league history with 25,000 career points.
It was Huerter that was the most amped for the game and it showed, as he chipped in 25 points and went 5-of-9 from three.
“We won’t get into details,” Huerter said, when asked what he wanted to accomplish in the game against his former team. “Just an old team. Came back and played well in a game I wanted to play well in.”
The win moved the Bulls to 30-40, keeping them locked in the No. 9 seeding in the East, while the Kings (35-34) continued to stumble, dealing with injuries and inconsistencies.
“I don’t even want to talk about it,” LaVine said with a laugh about the growing pains in Sacramento. “(The injuries are) part of basketball and it sucks cause on paper everything does look good. Like, ‘Wow, this fits, this does.’ And we’ve had some really good games, and we’ve also had some games where we’re trying to figure it out and put together a new team on the fly, but that’s our job. We’re pros. We’re supposed to learn how to struggle and win, but we don’t want any more of the injury bug. I’ve seen enough of it.”
As far as the “when daddy calls” comment from DeRozan, better believe Terry made sure to get the last word in.
While DeRozan was in the hallway saying goodbye to his former teammates postgame, Terry made sure to let the veteran know, “That didn’t age well. Who’s daddy now?”
