Kyle Lowry – Change the Culture

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Before the arrival of a young kid from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Toronto Raptors, as well as the entire country of Canada, had somewhat lost touch with not only the NBA but the game of basketball when looking through a microscope.

In July of 2012, amid an offseason of questions and admitted mistakes made by a front-office under scrutiny, the Toronto Raptors organization was at a competitive and financial stand-still.

They had already lost their face of the franchise player in Chris Bosh, and a man that had all the hype in the world around him, Andrea Bargnani was proving to be somewhat of a bust-caliber player. Demar DeRozan was just a young player finding his way in the league, and new head coach Dwayne Casey was unsure of the direction that his team or his own management wanted to go in.

The Raptors went 23-43 in a 2011-12 lockout-shortened season, finishing near the bottom of the eastern conference.

On July 11, 2012, Lowry was traded to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Gary Forbes and a future first-round pick. After his first season in Canada didn’t amount to much other than becoming the starting point guard on a bad team, Lowry was introduced to a man that would end up paving the way for his hall of fame career.

On May 31, 2013, Masai Ujiri was hired as the Raptors’ general manager. Ujiri saw a different light in Kyle Lowry that he may have not even seen in himself. Ujiri wanted Lowry to become the best emotional leader and player he could possibly be on and off the court. Ujiri challenged Lowry to take the team and put it on his back, to exceed all expectations of a franchise in pieces.

“Do you want to be a $3 million player, $2 million player for the rest of your career”, Ujiri asked Lowry, “… or do you want to be a $10 million player or more?”

That is one way to motivate someone who had been fighting his entire life. At just seven years old, Lowry’s father left the family never to be heard from again. Lowry’s older brother took him in and raised him into the game of basketball, to take out frustrations on a basketball court in East Philly.

After reading into the life of Kyle Lowry and trying to understand where he comes from and what he stands for, you quickly can see how his life impacts the way he performs on the court.

Heart. determination and grit are just a few ways to define the career of Kyle Lowry in his time with the Toronto Raptors. In his early years of developing alongside his best friend in DeMar DeRozan, they had their ups and their downs the entire ride.

With the personal successes, they reached together, as well as the crippling playoff failures what felt like over and over again, Lowry has seen all of the bad and all of the good in his time wearing a Raptors jersey.

In 2018 when Masai Ujiri pulled the trigger on the biggest transaction in Raptors history, acquiring Kawhi Leonard for Lowry’s close buddy DeRozan, the Raptors signaled that they were all in. With an aging star in Lowry who they had been building around for close to a decade, it was now or never to finally reached the holy grail in the postseason.

The rest is history. The 2018-19 Toronto Raptors would go on to be probably the most lumped together, inspired and resilient NBA championship team ever. A first-year head coach in Nick Nurse and one season of Leonard and Danny Green, they accomplished exactly what they set out to do, win a ring and inspire a nation along the way.

From rags to riches was exactly where Lowry’s career in Canada had traveled. Once an afterthought, an undersized guard from Villanova that was labeled with relationship issues amounts to his coaches and a problem in the locker room. To look back on it now, it is safe to say Lowry has been the lead contributor alongside Masai Ujiri to the changing of culture in not only the Raptors organization but the sport of basketball in this country.

Trade rumors have swirled around this year regarding the services of the greatest Toronto Raptor ever. Regardless of where things end up, it is a sure thing that Canada will always embrace Lowry for what he did on and off the court, exactly what he was challenged to do in an offseason meeting in 2013.

Favorite Lowry Moments – 

There are so many. The run in 2019 comes to mind first of course. All of his insanely timely charges drawn, big threes in clutch moments, setting up his teammates when he didn’t have a chance to score.

His relationship with former Raptor DeMar DeRozan, that still lives to this day as a story that Raptors fans keep close tabs on.

Here are some of the highlights of Lowry’s legendary time as the face of Toronto Raptors basketball.

Championship Parade:

Lowry was a true national treasure on this amazing day in Canadian sports history. Seen holding the Larry O’Brien trophy tighter than he was even holding his own sons. Maybe a tad under the influence of alcohol, it was a treat to finally see all of the fruits of his labor.

He even led a chant in an effort to influence star player Kawhi Leonard to resign in the six… (It didn’t work).

Kyle and DeMar:

The two biggest clowns you will see in the background of a professional sports team, but when the game wasn’t being played and the cameras were rolling, these two made sure everyone knew that it wasn’t just regular team chemistry.

The reason these two were so successful together in Toronto was the way they connected mentally. DeMar has been open about his struggles with mental health and how much of a help Kyle is to him on a daily basis.

The friendship always made the game seem so much less important than it was, because win or lose, there was always a bigger picture.

Evan Power, Evolution 107.9

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