Donovan presents DeRozan with 20,000-points gift originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Scoring 20,000 points in the NBA is hard, which is why it's the gift that keeps on giving.
Chicago Bulls All-Star DeMar DeRozan became the 50th player in league history (54th counting ABA stats) to achieve the milestone when he sank a — what else?— midrange jumper on Oct. 28 against the San Antonio Spurs.
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Gregg Popovich, who coached DeRozan for three seasons, immediately stopped the game with a timeout, a classy move that allowed the San Antonio crowd to acknowledge the feat.
The next night at the United Center, the Bulls honored DeRozan by announcing the milestone and letting DeRozan bathe in the crowd response before a home loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Before Tuesday's practice at the Advocate Center, coach Billy Donovan presented DeRozan with a gift from Wilson, the official ball manufacturer of the NBA. The honorary game ball has DeRozan's name, "20K Career Points" and the game and date stamped on it.
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As DeRozan opens the box to reveal the gift, his teammates stand around him, applauding. As DeRozan thanks them, even he seems impressed by his achievement.
"That's a lot of points, man," DeRozan said.
Indeed it is. Which is why Alex Caruso's response at the end of the video posted to the team's official Twitter account is hilarious. Speaking to Dalen Terry, Caruso is heard saying the rookie only has 19,996 points to go.
DeRozan has passed Antawn Jamison and Tom Chambers on the all-time scoring list since he achieved his milestone. He needs 205 points to pass Joe Johnson for 47th in the NBA rankings (51st if including ABA).
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