Gay says DeRozan-Leonard trade shows difference between Spurs, other teams

Rudy Gay is sticking up for the San Antonio Spurs in the fallout from the Kawhi Leonard-DeMar DeRozan trade.

Gay, who reached out to his former Raptors teammate following the trade, vouched for how the Spurs do business on the Hartford Courant's UConn Insider podcast, arguing it's what separates the organization from other teams around the league.

"The best part about San Antonio, they do right by you," Gay said. "They do right by their players, do right by their staff. That doesn’t happen much in the NBA, to be honest with you."

DeRozan, for his part, has made it clear he no longer has any kind of relationship with Raptors president Masai Ujiri after an apparent "gap of miscommunication" between the two parties.

Gay, who re-signed with the Spurs this offseason on a one-year, $10-million deal, believes that kind of incident won't happen to DeRozan in San Antonio, advocating for how straight up the Spurs' front office is.

"On one side, there was [Leonard] that was trying to get out, get to a bigger market, and they were totally being upfront with him, and then they trade him for a guy [DeRozan] where that organization wasn’t being upfront with him at all," Gay said. "So, I mean, it’s just night and day. That trade right there shows you the difference between the San Antonio Spurs and other organizations."

The 31-year-old went through a similar situation when he was dealt from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Raptors after six-plus years with the franchise, having established ties in the city.

"When you're in the NBA, it's different," Gay said. "You have certain players that you just know are going to make their own decisions. But for everybody else, you're part of the league. We leave foundations. We build houses, have our kids in school. It's tough to go on and just uproot to another city. For DeMar, it's another country, so I kind of feel for him. I've been in that situation. It's not easy."