DeMar DeRozan never had a hard time defining himself in Chicago. That was true even as he returned to the United Center in a black and purple jersey on Sunday, helming the Sacramento Kings to a 124-119 win in his first game against the Bulls since leaving the organization in free agency last summer. It didn’t matter the time or the team he was on. The Bulls always knew what they were getting from DeRozan — a snarling ferocity, a brutally accurate midrange shot and an uncanny sense of magic in the fourth quarter. And for DeRozan, the feeling was mutual: he always knew to expect love from Chicago. “My three years here felt like 10,” DeRozan said. “The first moment I came here, I tried to give my all to this organization, to this city. You can’t fake it when you’re genuinely putting everything into representing the Bulls. I think it showed that I embodied the culture of Chicago.” On Sunday, Patrick Williams knew better than to jump. Long before the Bulls began to scout the Kings for the game, Williams had already claimed his matchup with DeRozan: “I wouldn’t let them give it to anyone else.” After three years as his teammate, most of the Bulls roster understood what made DeRozan one of the toughest assignments in the league. But Williams knew his most important goal was simple: stay down on that pump fake. Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine laughs with Sacramento Kings forward DeMar DeRozan after the Sacramento Kings defeated the Chicago Bulls 124-119 at the United Center on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune) It didn’t matter how hard DeRozan pulled up, how convincingly he twitched his eyebrows upward or slipped his hand down into a shooting position. It wasn’t just about avoiding a foul. For Williams, it was a point of pride — and a matter of protecting his wallet. “If I jump, I lose my money,” Williams joked before the game, referencing a wide range of bets placed in the Bulls locker room over who would be first to bite on DeRozan’s signature move. The Bulls ultimately guarded DeRozan by committee, bringing double teams off switches to slow him down off the pick-and-roll. For three quarters, it worked. DeRozan scored 12 points on 11 shots entering the fourth quarter. But those final 12 minutes are where DeRozan truly finds himself. And it didn’t matter if Williams remained dogged at his hip or if Lonzo Ball dashed over on a mismatch to provide a double team. DeRozan found his spots all the same, playing all but 13 seconds of the fourth quarter to tally nine points as the Kings eked out a five-point win. “I’ve watched that movie too many times in three years,” coach Billy Donovan said. “He’s always gonna make the right play. We just wanted to get the ball out of his hands.” Sunday’s reunion was more bittersweet than the typical homecoming game of a beloved former player — mostly because it marked the first time that DeRozan shared the court with Lonzo Ball since January 2022. DeRozan spent plenty of days over at Ball’s house during previous offseasons, talking about the necessity of patience as the point guard suffered through a grueling injury recovery. But DeRozan wasn’t there to witness the payoff, celebrating from afar this season as Ball cleared each hurdle of his recovery plan. On Sunday, DeRozan was finally present for one of those milestones. The pair embraced at center court as Ball took the floor for his first start in almost three years, capturing a glimpse of the partnership the Bulls never truly had the chance to experience. Sacramento Kings forward DeMar DeRozan (10) protects the ball from Chicago Bulls forward Jalen Smith (7) and Chicago Bulls forward Julian Phillips (15) during the first quarter at the United Center on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune) This season has been the year things are finally going right for all four of the players who formerly comprised the heart of the Bulls roster — DeRozan, Ball, Zach LaVine, Nikola Vučević. LaVine tallied his sixth consecutive game with 30 or more points on Sunday, putting up 36. Vučević is shooting the ball at the best clip of his entire career. Ball is mere months away from fully completing a years-long recovery from a knee injury to return to his former self. And DeRozan is maintaining his role as a standard bearer in the midrange. They’re just not doing it together. DeRozan still wonders what that group could have been and how far they could have pushed themselves in the 2022 playoffs if the bottom hadn’t fallen out due to injuries. This year, however, he’s had to learn to live with a lack of closure in Chicago. “That’s why we came here all together — to play together, to have those type of moments,” DeRozan said. “It didn’t go as we expected it to go but the friendships and the moments that was created through that time means the world to me.” It’s impossible to ignore how the Bulls have transformed themselves in the wake of DeRozan’s departure. After the star left for the Kings in free agency, Donovan overhauled the entire offense to embrace an up-tempo style of play. This new vision flipped the Bulls — previously one of the slowest, lowest-volume 3-point shooting teams in the league — on their heads. Photos: Sacramento Kings 124, Chicago Bulls 119 on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in DeMar DeRozan’s return But Donovan dismissed the idea that this year’s style of play was contingent upon DeRozan’s departure. Yes, the Bulls played slower the past three years, but Donovan attributed that lack of pace to the guards, not the star. Before Ball went down with a knee injury in January 2022, the Bulls were not a slow team. They weren’t quite as fast as this year — 14th in the league with a pace rating of 98.98 — but the Bulls were finding a way to run-and-gun while still feeding DeRozan’s methodical midrange style. And if the star had chosen to stay in Chicago this season, Donovan believes he would have fit seamlessly into this new version of the Bulls offense. “He is capable of playing any way you want to play,” Donovan said. “He is so smart and so cerebral. He will fit into any style of play. He is smart enough to look at a team and recognize what’s best for the team and he’ll adapt to whatever you need to do. He’s always been great at that, and that’s one of the reasons I really, really loved my time with him.” Although his tenure was defined by a lopsided mix of frustrating losses and astounding wins, DeRozan will be remembered in Chicago first and foremost as a leader. DeRozan is a notably private person, preferring to keep his family life as separate from basketball as possible. But he opened his home to young teammates like Williams and Dalen Terry, hosting them for offseason training and inviting them to spend time with his mother and children. Dinners shared at the DeRozan household emphasized the depth of trust the star built between himself and his teammates as he nurtured long-term mentorship with the youngest players on the roster. And DeRozan expressed the same affection for those teammates on Sunday: “They’re still my sons.” Those summers weren’t all fun. They were mostly dedicated to a boot camp-style training regimen that DeRozan gleefully described as “hell” workouts. Williams and Terry only ever gave small glimpses into what “hell” entailed — early morning wakeups, wind sprints on the beach, rounds in the boxing ring. For Williams, those summers shaped his psyche as an NBA player. “It makes you question what you’re really in it for,” Williams said. “He showed me this is what I want to do. I say I want to be the best. This is what the best do.” Beyond the buzzer-beaters and the midrange excellence, this is ultimately why DeRozan mattered so deeply to the Bulls — he asked questions of his teammates that demanded them to dig a little deeper. And those answers will remain important to the identity of this Bulls roster for years after DeRozan’s locker was cleared out. 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That’s where it becomes genuine and real and authentic when they’re in that position.” This is what DeRozan always wanted — to help the Bulls find themselves. He couldn’t accomplish the rest of his goals in Chicago. The Bulls won only one playoff game in three years with DeRozan. They missed the playoffs twice, grappled with injuries and faced flurries of rumors and speculation. And despite the brief promise of that first season, they never became true contenders in the East. But looking back on his tenure, DeRozan feels at peace with the foundation he built for the next generation of the Bulls. “Every time I did anything with those guys, it was genuine,” DeRozan said. “I didn’t even care about basketball. I just wanted them to be great individuals, first and foremost. To see them grow and mature means the world to me.”