For Jose Calderon, Monday night’s return to the Air Canada Centre still felt sort of like a homecoming — a strange and emotional homecoming.
Talking with a throng of reporters before the game, Calderon — traded to the Detroit Pistons in the trade that brought Rudy Gay to the Raptors at the end of January — acknowledged how strange it was to return to the place where his NBA career started over seven years ago.
“It’s been weird since (Monday) morning being in Toronto in a hotel,” Calderon said. “Just having a meeting, coming down with the bus to the ACC… It’s just a weird feeling all around. It’s like, I’ve been here, like it was a couple months ago. It’s not like last year … I started the season here. It’s kind of like really, really, it’s still really close.”
Making the return a bit easier was the fact that the Pistons faced the Raptors in Detroit Friday. Getting the first meeting out of the way helped Calderon to get used to the idea of playing against the same players who he had shared a locker room just two months ago.
“It was weird, but it was funny at the same time,” Calderon said of Friday’s meeting. “Knowing all the calls that they were calling. And some funny moments, like DeMar (DeRozan) asking Kyle (Lowry), ‘What’s the play?’ And I’m like, ‘You don’t know the play? I know the play.'”
Praised by everyone from DeMar DeRozan to Dwane Casey to Amir Johnson, the impact that Calderon left on his former teammates remains even though he is in a different uniform these days.
Despite the move, Calderon is still keeping up with his old team.
“I watch them a lot,” he said. “I follow them. I got a lot of friends on this team so I always want them to do good. So I always take a look and see the stats and see how they’re doing and how they’re playing, who’s playing good and bad. And just text the guys. They’re friends … I’ve been with some of them for like, I don’t know, four, five, six years.”
While Johnson spoke about Calderon last week, saying he owed a lot of his buckets to passes from the Spanish point guard, Calderon was quick to praise the growth he has seen out of Johnson this season.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “He can do a lot of things. He’s the kind of guy you always want in your team. He does everything right. Every night he competes, every night he’s there. You know he’s going to show up. And that’s tough to do and he’s been doing it for now I don’t know how long. He’s been great…We played really good basketball for a long time. It’s nice to see him grow that way.”
A humble NBAer in a league filled with as much flash as substance, it was obvious that the love from his former teammates meant a lot to Calderon.
“I think that it’s even more important than about basketball sometimes,” he said. “I feel great. I always try to be like me. And this is me as a person. So it’s nice…when people talk about you like that.
“It means a lot. That’s who I am and that’s what I’ve been. I think everybody who’s been around me for a while knows I’m always trying to be the same guy and I just do the right things and always putting the team first. And I think that’s what makes you a better person, a better player for sure.”
It is quotes that like that have made Calderon one of the most beloved players to ever don the Raptors uniform.