If I had to describe Kyle Lowry in one word, it would be the ‘toughest, smartest, most misunderstood Raptor of all time’. I suppose that is more than one word, but I’ve never been really good with rules. In fact I might add underestimated if there is still room, although the national exposure he’s getting these days on the 21-5 league leading Raptors is perhaps changing that to ‘lessunderestimated’ if that’s a word I can use without my spell check blowing up.
A nice reporter from ESPN asked Kyle the other day about his relationship these days with Masai Ujiri in light of the Demar DeRozan trade. Kyle replied that Masai was the President of Basketball Operations and he was a player.
Now if you stand back and look at that comment, it seems that Kyle didn’t really say anything at all about his relationship with Masai and instead simply articulated Masai’s position within the organization as well as his own. The reporter replied that his answer left plenty of room for interpretation and although Kyle didn’t say it, his eyes replied, ‘Really? If you say so.’
So what does that mean? To help us answer that question, Kyle provided more context later to a different reporter when he stated that his relationship with Masai has always been the same, Masai has been the Chief Exec and Kyle has been the point guard. In other words, they’ve always had primarily a business relationship not a personal relationship.
What Kyle was saying was, ‘If you’re looking for me to say something bad about Masai because of the Demar trade, it’s not happening.’
It’s unfortunate, you know, because there was a point at which Kyle was really upset with Masai, and if the nice reporter hadn’t been looking for headlines, she would have revealed what a professional Kyle is and how he dealt with a significant blow, how he got back up and moved on.
For those who don’t know, Kyle Lowry’s best friend is Demar DeRozan. Now some of you will guffaw at that I suppose, but anyone who dismisses the importance of a close friendship has never had a real best friend. A buddy. If you’re still guffawing, there’s nothing I can say to help you understand. You’ll just have to come along for the ride and judge for yourself. You can say it was just a buddy that just got traded but that’s akin to saying the Titanic was just a ship. There is a lot more to the story.
At 2:30 am, early in the morning of July 18th, 2018, Kyle Lowry was awakened by his phone. Stealing off to another part of the house in an effort not to wake his family, he took the call. It was his best friend Demar DeRozan. Demar was sitting in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. He had just been informed that he had been traded along with Jakob Poeltl to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. Demar likely didn’t hear anything after ‘You’ve been traded to the Spurs…..’ It was impossible. It couldn’t be happening.
It was no secret that Demar loved being a Raptor. He loved the city of Toronto and he loved playing in Canada, playing for an entire country. He loved the way the fans had adopted him as a favourite son and he wanted to play in Toronto for his entire career. He was proud of it. Prior to his last contract, Demar broadcast that he wouldn’t be entertaining offers from any other club. Not your average, everyday sports millionaire. He wanted to remain a Raptor for life and suddenly he wasn’t.
I don’t know exactly how Demar felt, but I’ve been through a few things in my life so I have some idea. I won’t detail it here. It was Demar’s burden, he shouldered it and he’s doing well on his new track. But when I think of that conversation between Kyle and Demar – how does a best friend provide support when so far away, how does a best friend provide support when there is absolutely nothing he can do to change or fix the situation. Must have been tough.
Kyle was drafted by Memphis in 2006 and traded to Houston in 2009 before finally being traded to the Toronto Raptors in 2012. In his early years, Kyle demonstrated the skills and tenacity that would inevitably take him to multiple all-star games but he struggled early to find consistency and his own ‘eye of the tiger’. But after the trade of Rudy Gay and multiple rumours linking Kyle to a trade with the New York Knicks, Demar and Kyle got together and determined not to be traded by working together to move the team forward and into the playoffs. Their friendship started as mutual respect for each other’s work ethic and a shared desire to win and it soon grew to admiration and a close friendship.
Move the team forward they did. Over the next few years, the Raptors rocketed up the standings setting club record after club record until finally in 2017-2018 the duo pushed the team to the best record in the eastern conference. These were fun years to watch the Raptors play – and win! What everyone remembers are the playoff losses that killed each of these years. What most fail to recall – for the last eight years no eastern conference team without LeBron James has reached the Finals.
Many also forget that through these years, the Raptors were a fun team to watch, winning 50+ games per season and knocking off league stalwarts from time to time. They played hard, developed strong chemistry and it was clear they enjoyed playing together. Kyle and Demar became best friends with the shared vision of taking the Raptors to a championship.
As a person, Kyle grew through his friendship with Demar, becoming more relaxed and less bristly with authority. On offense, a more mature, confident Kyle, no longer concerned with anything to prove, became a complete playmaker. He can instantly analyze a defence, expose holes and aggressively engages offensive opportunities.
Come playoff time, however, LeBron James loomed each year like the generational talent he is. And each year, LeBron would deny the Raptors the opportunity to move forward, the opportunity to gain league wide respect. After taking the King to 6 games in the conference finals in 2016, it seemed like the Raptors were maybe just a piece away. But in 2017 and again in 2018, Cleveland stomped on them, reducing promising seasons to powder in 4 games straight.
To most, it was obvious why Masai Ujiri resigned Kyle and Serge to large, but short term deals. The ‘large’ portion was in reaction to the work and success they had achieved in the previous years and the ‘short’ indicated he was creating a well-defined window of time in which this core had to succeed. With that window closing next year and the opportunity to land Toronto’s first true superstar for at least a year, Masai pulled the trigger and went all in for a championship now.
If he is successful and Toronto wins the championship or at least gets to play for the championship, it makes a strong case to Kawhi to stay and resign in Toronto. That is the first and most important step in the next chapter in the history of the Raptors. If he stays, then Masai will build around him and many of the current Raptors will remain Raptors for at least several years more as the Kawhi chapter plays out. If he doesn’t stay, then I believe Masai will make some substantial changes to the deck chairs and we’ll be able to cheer for most of our current roster at other destinations around the NBA.
None of that mattered to Kyle Lowry at 2:30am July 18th. He had only one role and it was one of the most difficult he had ever had to fill. That’s when he was upset with Masai.
No one except Kyle knows what his journey was like between that night and the beginning of the season at the end of October. There were rumours, of course about how angry he was with Masai. Some thought that maybe he wouldn’t show up at camp, maybe he would show up out of shape just to show Masai. He was definitely going to do something outrageous to protest the DeRozan trade publicly.
Only he didn’t and he hasn’t. Kyle arrived to camp in peak condition and with trademark Lowry intensity has played perhaps the best basketball of his career. This season’s version of Kyle Lowry has been the very best to date and he’s proving he is not only one of the toughest players in the league but more importantly, one of the smartest players in the game as well. Just this past week on 2 separate plays, Kyle read the play, got to the spot and drew 2 charges on 7’2” Joel Embiid putting the Philly big man in foul trouble. Smart and tough. Night after night, those attributes and his tenacity help propel the Raptors to victory this season.
His actions will always speak for him. He’s doing it without his best friend this year, but he’s doing it better than ever.