Following a blockbuster trade that sent DeMar DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs but also from the only NBA home he's ever known in Toronto, DeRozan sent a special thank you Raptors fans.

DeRozan took to Instagram on Saturday to thank fans for their support and outlined just how much they meant to him.

"Words could never express what you've meant to me," DeRozan started. Explaining he was a 19-year-old kid from Compton when he first joined the team, the fans had always embraced him as one of their own. Telling Raptors Nation he appreciated the past nine years, DeRozan said, "All I ever wanted to do was duplicate it 10x over just to show my appreciation. Thank you Toronto, thank you Canada. #Comp10 #ProveEm."

The letter to fans came just days after DeRozan expressed shock and disappointment in the Raptors organization for trading him after promising they would not. He was moved along with center Jakob Poeltl and a top-20-protected 2019 first-round pick to the Spurs for disgruntled superstar Kawhi Leonard and shooting guard Danny Green.

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The Raptors are now viewed as vastly improved and contenders in the Eastern Conference but the team has come under fire for how they handled the trade. General manager Masai Ujiri formally apologized to DeRozan earlier this week for a lack of communication and made sure to note how loved and appreciated DeRozan was by the Raptors franchise; it was not in their long-term plans to trade him.

There is no doubt the fans will miss DeRozan. He was arguably one of the best players in Toronto Raptor's history and it's never a good day for fans when a team trades an All-Star who wanted to start and finish his career with the same team. That said, Kawhi Leonard has been arguably one of the top-five players in the NBA over the past five years and many believe trading DeRozan was simply the cost of doing business.

NEXT: RAPTORS GM UJIRI APOLOGIZES TO DEMARD DEROZAN