Kyle Lowry, who played a pivotal role in the Toronto Raptors' journey to the NBA championship, has announced he will end his NBA run with the team.
In a news conference on Tuesday, July 7, Lowry revealed that he has signed a one-day contract with the Raptors, where he spent nine seasons, from 2012 to 2021, to retire as part of the squad.
"This place has just been special for me since the day I got here," he said. "I always said I would retire as a Toronto Raptor."
Bobby Webster on Kyle Lowry
During the announcement, Raptors general manager and executive vice president Bobby Webster called Lowry "the greatest Raptor of all time".
"Watching him play basketball stirred everybody's heart," he said. "I think he played a brand of basketball that very few in the NBA have matched. Every possession for him was life and death."
Webster highlighted that prior to Lowry, the Raptors had never won 50 games; however, after the point guard joined the team, the Raptors went on to enjoy five straight 50-win seasons, including a championship run.
Kyle Lowry's retirement announcement
Kyle Lowry had officially announced his retirement just prior to the news conference, in a video posted to his Instagram account Tuesday morning.
"Toronto, my home," Lowry said in the six-minute retrospective of his life and 20-year NBA career. "Thank you, Toronto. Thank you, Canada."
The Raptors also posted a photo of Lowry in a Toronto jersey with the words "Welcome Home Kyle", while Mayor Olivia Chow declared Tuesday Kyle Lowry Day in the city.
Moreover, Tuesday's announcement coincided with Lowry's iconic jersey number when he played with the Raptors as No. 7. That number will also be retired during a ceremony next season.
Kyle Lowry's NBA run
The 40-year-old point guard left the Raptors in 2021 after being traded to the Miami Heat. He played nine seasons for Toronto, six of them as an all-star, and helped bring home the team's first NBA championship in franchise history in 2019.
Lowry has spent his last two seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Stake in Toronto Tempo
Following this retirement conference, Kyle Lowry and his wife, Ayahna Cornish-Lowry, announced they were taking an ownership stake in the city’s WNBA team, the Toronto Tempo.
The Lowrys join tennis great Serena Williams, former Raptors executive Masai Ujiri and comedian Lilly Singh, as well as others, as part of the team’s ownership group.
