One thing that many people don’t understand about sign-and-trades is that the player involved in the transaction needs to agree to the deal. For the Sacramento Kings, that means that when he orchestrated the sign-and-trade that landed us DeMar DeRozan, the six-time All-Star actually wanted to come to us.

As a small market team with a less-than-rich history, it is always pleasantly surprising when someone willingly chooses to play for us. However, what makes this situation even more shocking is that DeRozan had the chance to play for one of the teams in Los Angeles, as both the Clippers and Lakers expressed some degree of interest in him.

Not only is Los Angeles the place where every player in the NBA wants to go, but it is also less than 30 minutes away from where DeRozan grew up (Compton, California). So, DeRozan chose Sacramento over coming home! But why?

Why DeRozan Chose Sacramento Over Los Angeles

On Monday, DeRozan made an appearance on Paul George’s popular podcast “Podcast P.” During the episode, George – someone who spent a half-decade in Los Angeles – asked DeRozan about why he chose Sacramento over the City of Angels. Here is what DeRozan had to say:

“Everyone knows that I’m at a place [in my career] where I just want to win. From there, I let the cards play out in a way where I could see what landscape was going to let me win…and then Sacramento came about. They were showing interest, like real interest,” DeRozan told George. “So, when I stepped back and looked at them and analyzed the team, [they have] great players and a great team. And I just always remember the last couple of years, seeing them light this beam, winning, and all that. That’s something you always want to be a part of. A contagious culture of an organization that wants to win. When I looked at all that, I just felt like [Sacramento] fit.”

In his 15 years in the NBA, DeRozan has accomplished quite a bit. However, he doesn’t have the playoff track record that some of his contemporaries possess. Up to this point, DeRozan has never played in the NBA Finals, and he’s only made the conference finals once.

Simply put, all that there is left for DeRozan to do is win, and in his mind, the Kings gave him a better chance to do that than the Lakers or Clippers. Considering we’ve spent years looking up at them in the standings (yes, even the Clippers), hearing that is a cool change of pace, and it continues our theme of spending the summer reflecting on how far we’ve come as a team.