The Raptors are not as good of a team now that the Kyle Lowry era is over. But they’re a better organization for having had him. By: michaelgrange
But his connection to Toronto and the franchise was much deeper than ‘just passing through.’ As the Raptors were exiled in Tampa this past season he was asked what he missed about Toronto. His answers were specific and detailed and Torontonian if not completely believable. He missed the traffic on the Don Valley Expressway, as an example.
Why did Toronto fit with Lowry and Lowry fit with Toronto? They needed each other, and the Raptors -- and city -- weren’t too big to make the first move. The fit wasn’t immediate -- Lowry famously didn’t have DeMar DeRozan’s phone number during their entire first season playing together. They barely spoke. And Lowry wasn’t perfect. He arrived in Toronto in the summer of 2012 with some baggage and didn’t set it all down right away. He kept a few bricks in a backpack he could throw over his shoulder when needed. He could be cantankerous, difficult and contrarian.
How could it? The mile-wide streak where he would suffer no fools and believed he had the right to determine who was a fool or not?But no matter what he never failed in his primary role: when the lights are on play like winning any game, any possession, any battle for a loose ball is the most important thing in the world.
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