Even when Kyle Lowry retires, he won't be done being a part of franchise firsts for the Toronto Raptors.
Lowry, the central figure of the greatest era in Raptors history, will have his number retired by the team when he walks away from the game, Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of the Raptors, told The Athletic's Jared Weiss.
“He will retire as a Raptor and his number will absolutely go up there,” Tanenbaum said. “The honour will be the first one [for the Raptors] and I love Kyle. I love his leadership. I love his intelligence. I love his passion.”
First acquired by Toronto in a July 2012 trade with the Houston Rockets for Gary Forbes and a protected future first-round draft pick, Lowry spent nine seasons with the Raptors, growing from a fringe starter to the leader of the 2019 championship-winning team.
Considered by many to be the greatest Raptor of all time, Lowry holds the franchise record for triple-doubles (16), three-points field goals (1,518), assists (4,277) and steals (873). With 10,540 points, he ranks second to good friend DeMar DeRozan (13,296) in the Raptors record book. His 601 games and 20,813 minutes played in Toronto colours also rank second to DeRozan.
Over the last five seasons, he also leads the league with 166 charges taken.
In January 2019, he added to his legacy by joining a select group with 5,000 career assists.
"He's been in the league a long time and he's had the ball in his hands and got it to a lot of people," Toronto coach Nick Nurse said at the time. "Since I came here five-and-a-half years ago, it was the first thing I noticed -- how he'd find the right guys to get the ball to. He really commands the offence and knows where to get it."
During his final season with the Raptors, spent in Florida as the team was displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lowry showed flashes of his signature command of the floor despite being restricted to 46 games due to injury.
He averaged 17.2 points and 7.3 assists a game last season, as Toronto finished out of the playoffs, in 12th spot in the East.
But his status as the Greatest Raptor of All Time was never just about stats or records, it was earned for his role in putting Toronto on the NBA map after the franchise struggled for years to find an identity.
"He showed our city who we want to be. The fighter. The leader," Toronto mayor John Tory said in a statement. "The player who's got your back and leads the charge. Who takes the charge. Who falls down and gets back up. Again and again."
The ending may have been imperfect, as the most memorable stories often are, but there's no "We The North" rallying cry without Lowry's unstoppable will to win.
"This is hard to write but the time has come for the next chapter in my story to begin," Lowry wrote in a farewell message to the city, country, franchise and its fans. "But the bond I share with you is unbreakable. Toronto will forever be my second home and I will always be tied to the franchise, the city and the country of Canada, which makes me so happy to say."
