When DeMar DeRozan returned to Chicago with the Sacramento Kings on Jan. 12, 2025, the storyline wasn’t just about a veteran revisiting a former stop — it was about a mentor checking in on his pupils. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, DeRozan affectionately calls the young players he guided during his three Bulls seasons his “sons,” a label that captures the depth of bonds he built with Patrick Williams, Coby White, and Dalen Terry as they navigated the early challenges of NBA life.
The Mentor’s Guidance
When DeRozan returned to the United Center with the Kings on Jan. 12, 2025, the Chicago Sun-Times documented what his former teammates remembered most: not the mid-range pull-ups or the clutch buckets, but the way he brought them into his world off the court. He guided Williams, White, and Terry through the grind of being young players in the NBA — and the lessons, by every account, went far beyond basketball.
Bonds Beyond the Court
What separated DeRozan’s mentorship from the standard veteran-rookie dynamic was how personal it became. As one former Bulls teammate told the Chicago Sun-Times, the difference was “being integrated in somebody’s family and spend[ing] time in their house.” DeRozan put it plainly: “Every time I chilled or did anything with those guys, it was genuine. I didn’t even care about basketball.”
That connection didn’t dissolve when DeRozan left Chicago. In July 2024, Bleacher Nation reported that Terry was spotted alongside DeRozan at the Drew League in California — a visible sign that the relationship had outlasted the roster.
DeRozan’s Closest Pupil: Dalen Terry
Among the young Bulls DeRozan took under his wing, Terry emerged as perhaps the most visible beneficiary. The Chicago Sun-Times reported in January 2023 that Terry — then a rookie trying to stay patient through limited minutes — leaned on DeRozan to help him process the adjustment, and that there was “no bigger DeRozan hype man on the roster than Terry.”
The admiration ran both ways. Terry told CHGO in February 2023, “I mean he’s helped me with every aspect.” By the end of the 2023-24 season, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan was publicly crediting DeRozan’s influence: The Athletic reported in April 2024 that Donovan “specifically cited DeRozan’s mentorship of Bulls second-year swingman Dalen Terry, whose development was apparent over the season’s second half.”
Nurturing the Next Generation
Terry wasn’t the only one DeRozan shaped. The Chicago Sun-Times noted that DeRozan helped Williams, White, and Terry all grow as they worked through the demands of being young NBA players. Patrick Williams offered some of the most direct testimony about what that looked like in practice.
“The knowledge that he has — being able to break it down for us — that’s priceless,” Williams told CHGO in February 2023. He described DeRozan drilling him on “the finer details of the game — angles, knowing what to do, when to do it” and added, “He pushes me literally every single game, every single day. If I’m playing well, it’s never ‘good job, good game’ — it’s always ‘you can do this next, this is something you can add to your game.'”
Lessons That Transcend Basketball
DeRozan’s investment in Chicago’s young core extended well beyond film sessions and post-practice drills. According to NBA.com, DeRozan — a winner of the NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award — invited Williams and Terry to join him in community outreach sessions, folding them into his off-court commitments the same way he folded them into his family.
As DeRozan told the Chicago Sun-Times on his January 2025 return, the time he spent with those players was never transactional. “Every time I chilled or did anything with those guys, it was genuine,” he said. “I didn’t even care about basketball.” That authenticity, more than any individual lesson, is what his former teammates say they carry forward.
