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TORONTO - 12 months ago DeMar DeRozan carried the weight of an expiring contract into training camp as he prepped for his fourth NBA season with the Raptors. In many ways he was a different person with different responsibilities, different motivations. He had a lot to prove but he wasnt fully ready to prove it, not like he is now. He was still a young man. A year later, DeRozan finds himself in a similar setting - looking to end the Raptors playoff drought and reach the postseason for the first time in his professional career - but as training camp winds down and the regular season approaches, he appears to be a noticeably changed man. Now, hes a young adult. Fresh off the most eventful year of his life, the 24-year-old says he feels a lot older than his age suggests. The day after opening night will mark the one-year anniversary since DeRozan signed a $38 million extension keeping him in Toronto through the 2016-17 season. Since inking his new contact he put up career numbers playing in all 82 games last year, he participated in Team USAs minicamp this summer and more personally, he became a father. As he notes, he has grown up off the court just as much as he has on it. "I see a lot of film and a lot of pictures from my rookie year, my second year, my third year," DeRozan said in an interview with TSN.ca after a weekend practice in the Raptors gym. "You [can] just see how much Ive grown personality-wise [and] as a basketball player, especially now as a father, having a daughter and having [those] responsibilities to take care of. So its definitely [been] a major growth year." On May 12, DeRozan and his fiancee, Kiara, became first-time parents to daughter Diar; a day that forever changed his life, a day thats largely responsible for his transformation. "I cant even tell you in words, to explain it," he said, struggling to articulate how he felt in that moment. "It just put life all together for me and helped me understand the important things in life. Its definitely big, it means the world to me and theres not a word I can find to sum up the feeling." "It changes you most definitely for the better, it helps you become more of a man." Entering his fifth season, DeRozans growth has not gone unnoticed in training camp. As his coach and teammates have pointed out, that sense of responsibility and maturity has transcended his personal life and carried over on the basketball court where he seems poised to take his game to the next level. "Hes growing up," Rudy Gay has noticed of DeRozan. "Hes a father now, he has a family he has to provide for. Its the little things, not little things to him, but those little things on the outside make him seem more grown up, and he is. Hes spending more time in the gym, other than being with his kid. Hes really hungry and everybody around here sees it." "DeMar has grown," coach Dwane Casey echoed. "Hes grown as a person, as a young man, as an NBA player. Hes doing things now just instinctively where my first year, two years ago it was more teaching and talking to him about those situations where now theyre natural. So thats a sign of growth, thats a sign of maturity and he has really, really grown as a basketball player and most of all as a young man, which is great to see." Praised repeatedly throughout his time in Toronto for his unrelenting work ethic, DeRozan continued to refine his game this summer. When he wasnt changing diapers you could find him in the gym hoisting three-pointers - he would shoot until he made at least 300 per session - or perfecting an array of post moves he has displayed to perfection in the preseason. The fruits of his labour, for now, have resulted in a number of dominant moments during the exhibition season. Building off of last years improvement in the post, DeRozan has impressed with his footwork and creativity around the basket, getting to the rim and to the line with ease. He has handled the ball with confidence, passed out of double teams and shown improvement on defence. "Its beautiful because he is such a wonderful young man," Casey said of DeRozans evolution on the court. "Hes paid his dues, hes paid the price, hes put [in] his time in the gym. Hes done it himself. Every phase of the game hes worked on in the summer." To take the next step as an NBA player, DeRozan knows he has to put everything hes worked on together, staying consistent and efficient on both ends. While many professional athletes are motivated by money and the prospect of making more of it - something he already has covered, at least for the next four seasons - DeRozan is fuelled by his appetite to win and the fact that through four NBA seasons, he hasnt tasted much success. "[Making the playoffs] would completely mean everything," said DeRozan, now the longest tenured Raptors player (he and Amir Johnson are both entering their fifth year with the team). "Thats my biggest goal, just get us back there and get us back to winning and just get that joyful feeling again from the fans." Losing hasnt been easy on DeRozan, a born competitor, and hes done a lot of it since the Raptors selected him out of USC with the ninth pick in the 2009 draft. The team narrowly missed the postseason in DeRozans rookie season, going 40-42 before Chris Bosh bolted to Miami. Over the next three years Toronto had a combined record of 79-151. It hasnt been easy but its been a learning experience for DeRozan, an experience thats allowed him to play through mistakes and another contributing factor to the growth process. "When you go through rough times it helps you grow that much more and understand what you have to do to get better and help your team get better," he reflected. "Going through four tough years really helped me grow in every aspect. [Im] more of a leader, more of a man, more of an athlete." Leadership has been the biggest adjustment for DeRozan. A self-proclaimed recluse, he is reserved and mild mannered as a person but, with time, is becoming a more vocal player. "Hes still young," Gay pointed out. "I dont think people realize how young he is. You cant really expect him to know all the things there is. Hes played a lot of basketball but its a different kind of feel when youre playing winning basketball, and [its] not his fault at all, but now we have a team that can win and I think that everybody thats here that has won hes listening to and hes figuring out how to do it himself." "Everybody goes through it, Ive been through it so I can relate to him a lot," Gay continued, having also missed the playoffs in his first four seasons before reaching the postseason with Memphis in his fifth year. "Yeah, I can see hes hungry, hes talked about it a lot during the summer with me and I think we all are." DeRozan has experienced more in the last 12 months than most do in a single year. Hes come a long way since being drafted as a 19-year-old and playing his first game a couple months after his 20th birthday. Hes gone through things, both good and bad, that have forced him to mature faster than most people his age. Sometimes its easy to forget that hes only and just barely-turned 24. "Thats the thing about the NBA, you want players to dominate right now but when guys are young coming into the league its virtually [impossible]," Casey said. "I havent seen it happen yet and Ive been in [the league] now 21, 22 years. Any time a player comes in there is a growth process and you want it to happen yesterday but it takes time." "DeMar is right on schedule. Its time for him to do that, to grow and to be the player he was drafted to be. In some players the light doesnt come on and youll know that after the four-year period, or five-year period, but with him the light is on and theres someone in the house and hes ready to roll. Nows the time for him." Wholesale Thunder Jerseys . Head coach Randy Carlyle confirmed the news after the Leafs morning skate on Monday. Kozun was hurt during Friday nights home game against the Red Wings and did not make the return trip to Detroit for Saturdays game. Kyle Singler Jersey . -- Wide receiver Sidney Rice should be fully recovered from a torn knee ligament by the time the Seattle Seahawks start defence of their Super Bowl title, general manager John Schneider said Wednesday. http://www.cheapthundersjerseys.com/?tag...schroder-jersey. Leverkusen said on Friday it signed Schmidt on a two-year contract. He guided Red Bull Salzburg to the Austrian championship this season. 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Rousey has little down time between Bulgarian film sets and endless training back home in Los Angeles, but she isnt looking to relax while her window of opportunity is open. "Theres really not much of a model for this," Rousey said. "Im making it up as I go along, and I think were really starting to find a groove and a way for it to work without me falling asleep in traffic again. Thats not good." When Rousey (9-0) makes her fourth title defence against Alexis Davis at UFC 175 on Saturday, she isnt the main event in the biggest show of the summer. Rousey honestly prefers sharing the bill at big events, this time with middleweight champion Chris Weidmans title defence against Lyoto Machida. On the big screen, Rousey wont always be satisfied with occasional supporting roles. She wants to be a star, preferably in a series of action adventures that could keep her occupied well after her MMA career ends. "One of my goals with the whole movie thing is I want to just be able to have my own franchise, and I feel like thats something that doesnt happen overnight," Rousey said. "Thats something you have to put a lot of thought into. Yeah, it would probably be extremely difficult for me to play Queen Elizabeth in some film, but I feel like a franchise is a great fit for me, because then I could find something that just fits me being myself. And then I would just have to continue to be myself, and I know Im good at that." For all of Rouseys outside interests and attention, her last two months have been focused on Davis (16-5), a Canadian expert in jiu-jitsu with a five-fight winning streak.dddddddddddd Rousey is an enormous favourite, but she has yet to take an opponent lightly in the sport she took up professionally just over three years ago. "My sister is getting married, and the whole day Im going to be thinking about beating Alexis," Rousey said. "Anything that comes up that should make me super-excited, I really do not have the capacity to enjoy until I beat Alexis." Rousey made back-to-back films in 2013, but her bout with Davis is her third fight in just over six months. She has enjoyed the chance to get into a training groove after learning that ring rust is real when she returned in December from that 10-month absence and mildly struggled to finish off Miesha Tate. But Rousey showed a tough chin in that bout, and her tight schedule has kept her focused on improving the weaker aspects of her game. Rouseys Olympic-caliber judo skills and signature armbar submission hold are still vicious, yet her coaches are impressed by her improvements in striking. In the future, Rousey would prefer to fight twice per year, devoting the rest of her time to a film career. She also still dreams of a fight against Gina Carano, another rising actor whose MMA career inspired Rousey to step into the cage. But unlike Carano, Rousey insists she isnt leaving MMA in the foreseeable future, flatly laughing at any suggestion she cant pursue both careers. After UFC 175, shell begin promoting "The Expendables 3" for its Aug. 15 release, but shell likely fight again this year. "The UFC, theyve been good to me," Rousey said. "They took a lot of risks for me, and the way I show my appreciation is I take risks for them, and Im there when they need me. They know that if something falls out, they can call me on 24 hours notice and expect me to show up, be the Fight of the Night, perform and win and get out of there. And I know that they cant say that for a lot of their fighters." ' ' '