After months of trade speculation out of Edmonton, NHL forward, Milan Lucic took the opportunity to rip heavily into NBA player, DeMar DeRozan for his attitude after being traded by the Toronto Raptors.
During an interview with Ryan Whitney and Paul Bissonnette on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, Lucic discussed a number of topics including the rumors of him being traded, how well the Oilers organization has treated him since his arrival and how he's looking forward to bouncing back in Edmonton and proving he's still a solid NHL contributor. Lucic said, "I’m excited to come back and have that ‘prove people wrong’ kind of mentality and get back and be an elite team all over again and for myself personally be an elite player once again.”
For Oilers fans, this should be seen as great news.
When the discussion turned towards professional athletes in any sport being traded, the two hosts and Lucic had a field day with DeRozan's situation in Toronto. Whitney first called DeRozan a "little bit&^" before Lucic added, "he's being like a little bitter bit^% at like the organization for [being traded for] Kawhi Leonard, like literally a top-five player in the league."
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Lucic couldn't understand the fact that players can't grasp the concept of professional sports is a business. Teams don't need to give you a heads up you're being traded and unless your name is Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid or LeBron James, you're just another player.
Lucic finished with, it's almost impossible to feel bad for a player who got traded to one of the best organizations in basketball — the Spurs, who constantly compete for an NBA title. DeRozan is going to be coached by one of the best coaches in the history of the game in Greg Popovich, he'll make $30 million per year and play in a location that has no state tax. Lucic said," nobody feels bad for you, like fu%$ off."
It's a tad ironic that Lucic has such a strong opinion about being traded, considering it was rumored early in the NHL offseason that he was willing to help the Oilers facilitate a trade to move him out. If those rumors were true, the question becomes, was this a player just trying to help an organization go in a different direction? Or, was this a player who didn't want to be back?
For now, none of that matters as Lucic will be coming back to the Oilers. But, if things go south this season and Lucic is moved. Will he have the same attitude he does now?