Bond between friends is sure to last
DeRozan, Lowry seemed like unlikely friends when they first met
It’s funny how relationships develop, funny and impossible to predict. The perfect local case is one of the great Toronto sports friendships of the modern era. DeMar DeRozan was a quiet kid from California who saw an opportunity to make his lifelong mark on the Raptors franchise as he began his NBA career. Kyle Lowry was a somewhat recalcitrant veteran from Philadelphia, hardened by the business of basketball. He figured he would do his two years of penance in Toronto and move on somewhere else.
Today they are the best of friends and it makes no sense how it happened. Which is maybe why it’s so special.
“When you meet certain people in this world and you’re brought together by basketball, you don’t have a certain reason on why or this or that,” Lowry said Friday, hours before he and the Raptors faced DeRozan and the San Antonio Spurs at Scotiabank Arena.
“It just happens. It is what it is. You can talk about anything, you can watch TV, you cannot talk and still be on the same page. You got family, you got kids, all types of things that all go into that. It just brings together a bond.”
That bond is unbreakable, which made Friday night’s game — a 120-117 Raptors win — a little weird. Lowry knew it would be emotional, he knew what it meant to his buddy. And he knew he played a part in creating the success celebrated by the fans.
As good as DeRozan was, he needed Lowry to spur him on. As reluctant as Lowry was to commit to Toronto, he saw something special developing and wanted to be part of it.
There have not been two more enduring examples of disparate men coming together to achieve great things in Raptors history.
“He was the guy that we went to, and he became a heck of a basketball player, and I was the guy that just kept pushing him to get better and get better and try to push himself to the limit,” Lowry said. “Things didn’t work out, we didn’t win a championship here, he’s in a situation where he’s playing well, we’re playing well, we’re trying to win a championship. He’s trying to win a championship. I wish him the best as an individual, and his team, but we have a goal on our end, and that’s where it really matters right now.”
That’s peak Lowry. He is not and never will be a public sentimentalist but in his heart he knows what the bond means. He will fight and scratch and claw and do whatever needs to be done to beat his pal on the court, all the while knowing how the relationship evolved.
And, someday, he’ll think about what the two of them did, and how important it was to the development of the franchise.
“We’ll talk about that when we’re long gone and retired. Right now is just about living in the moment. I can’t think about what I did and what I’ve done. I want to play my game and appreciate the game that I’m playing right now.
“When I’m done and retired and hanging out, I will look back at all the accomplishments, the types of things we did for the franchise, the turnaround, whatever it is. I’ll look back at that time and say, ‘Oh wow, that’s pretty cool’ … You think about the future and the past when you done and you chilling.”
And he’ll look over to his side, see the other half of the tandem and smile.
“One day we’ll retire, we’ll be hanging out on the porch, drinking lemonade together,” Lowry said. “That’s what you cherish about the friendship.”