Aug 10, 2016 06:17 PM EDT By Michael Lagura, UniversityHerald Reporter

With the tight anticipations over the Group A Preliminaries featuring Australia vs. USA today at 18:00 EST, DeRozan slacks off a bit and recollects recent birthday celebration and the warm support from his alma mater University of South California, Raptors family and of course, from his "bromantic" buddy, Kyle Lowry. All these emerge at once while he earns title for Toronto's "All-time Franchise Player"; DeRozan claims a confident court guarding preparation or the Rio Olympic 2016 Men's Basketball today.

The 6-7 shooting guard, hailing from two native towns in California, Bellflower and Compton receives not mere supports, but also grand praises from his university friends in University of South California and even his family in Raptors for defying the long-negated tradition of franchise players giving up on the team almost after each every season. As a result, he will now be bannering the Raptors' flag as he steps into the court first thing today as the "All-Time Franchise Player", Fastbreak reported.

With his recent gold medal earning in 2014, DeRozan's long-time "bromance buddy", Kyle Lowry, includes in his heartfelt birthday message for DeRozan how he trusts him to lead the team for another gold medal. He then ends with, "I love you bro that's real talk, no matter what happens ever in life we still gone be brothers!! Happy life day!!!!" Sports Net reported. 

It seems DeRozan is becoming more than a celebrity in Raptors each day, to the delight of his Facebook  fans. But facing Australia today, would DeRozan's popularity and newly-earned title ever victor USA against the Aussies? Or, will DeRozan's recent birthday celebration be the only event the team is bound to enjoy in this year's Olympics? Witness all the answers unfold as you watch the game live. 

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