Kyle Lowry’s No. 7 is headed to the Raptors’ rafters on Jan. 10.
Toronto announced that it will retire Lowry’s jersey during a postgame ceremony after its matchup with the Sixers, making him just the second player to have his number honored at Scotiabank Arena. Vince Carter’s No. 15 is the only other jersey already hanging there.
Lowry said in a statement, “I’ve been looking forward to this moment for years,” Lowry said in a statement. “I always said that Toronto is home, and that I’d retire a Raptor, and to see my No. 7 go up in that building is going to mean everything to me.”
The team had already signaled this was coming when Lowry officially announced his retirement last month. At that time, the Raptors said they planned to retire No. 7 and also stage a series of events during the Sept. 19 weekend to celebrate his career.
Lowry’s rise in Toronto came after six uneven seasons in Memphis and Houston, where the Grizzlies and Rockets went with Mike Conley Jr. and Goran Dragic, respectively, instead of him. Once he arrived with the Raptors in 2012, he turned into one of the league’s top point guards over the next nine seasons.
He made six straight All-Star teams from 2015 through 2020 and helped Toronto capture its first championship in 2019. Across 601 regular season games with the Raptors, Lowry averaged 17.5 points, 7.1 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 34.6 minutes per game, while hitting 37.7% of his 6.7 three-point attempts per game.
Toronto won nine playoff series during his time with the franchise, and Lowry now stands as the organization’s all-time leader in assists, steals, three-pointers and triple-doubles. He’s second in franchise scoring behind DeMar DeRozan, and the team’s announcement called him the “GROAT” (“greatest Raptor of all-time”).
“We built something special here,” Lowry continued. “My teammates, the organization, the city and the fans, and all of Canada. We became champions together, and to be able to share this night with all of them, and with my family, is going to mean a lot to me.”
Toronto will spend the days leading up to the ceremony honoring him as well. The club said there will be a T-shirt giveaway on Jan. 7 against Minnesota and a bobblehead giveaway on Jan. 8 against Utah, along with “special programming and surprises” on both nights.
The jersey retirement night will also bring Lowry’s hometown team to town, with the Sixers in Toronto and Nick Nurse back in the building. Nurse, of course, coached the Raptors to the 2019 title.
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