Raptors’ Lowry embraces role as team leader
Veteran has matured, grown and accepted his newfound responsibilities
He leaned back in his chair on the podium on media day, cradled the microphone as if he was hosting the proceedings, joking with and goodnaturedly making fun of questioners, quick with a smile and quip.
He was the picture of a man comfortable with his surroundings, comfortable with his stature, the responsibility thrust upon him. A man comfortable with himself.
Leadership seems to fit Kyle Lowry perfectly.
The 30-year-old Lowry, along with sidekick and running mate DeMar DeRozan, has grown into the kind of veteran presence good basketball teams need, with the right temperament, the right sense of self and the right stuff.
“It’s been phenomenal for us the last couple of years, he’s been responsible,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said. “Kyle has played his part as a professional, as a basketball player on and off the court.
“I still go back to a couple of years go and when he signed his contract and everybody said ‘he’s going to be this, he’s going to be that; he’s not going to do this, he’s not going to do that.’ But we can all tell that the guy looked in the mirror, and he faced the challenges that came to him.”
But you wonder if Lowry could have done it had he not had DeRozan beside him?
They are the checks and balances on the roster, old heads in young bodies who work together like few Raptor duos ever have. They don’t let each other get too full of themselves, they joke and they carry on and sometimes it’s almost too much, but it’s genuine and they have taken the Raptors to unprecedented heights together.
“There are no two ways about it — the way Kyle goes, we go; the way DeMar goes, we go,” Ujiri said.
Could DeRozan have grown into the confident, talented 27-year-old multiple all-star he is had he not been pushed by the friend sitting next to him? Could Lowry have matured as much as he has, could he have accepted such responsibility for being a great teammate and an extension of his coach had he not been watching DeRozan so closely for the four seasons they’ve been together?
Impossible questions to answer definitively, but there is no question the dynamic duo have been good for each other.
And good for the Raptors.
“There are no two ways about it — the way Kyle goes, we go; the way DeMar goes, we go.” RAPTORS’ MASAI UJIRI ON LOWRY-DEROZAN
“Playing in the all-star game together, making it to the Eastern Conference final together and being able to compete for a gold medal together, it’s awesome,” DeRozan said.
“When you think you can’t do anything else to become closer to a teammate something else happens, and the U.S. (Olympic) thing was a great thing.”
They have also felt pain together — being swept by the Washington Wizards in the playoffs two springs ago still angers them — and they have felt great joy — the hug after the goldmedal game in Rio was something to behold.
They have learned how to put disappointment behind them, how to lead, how to win. Last year’s trip to the Eastern Conference final was an eye-opener and what drives them now. Together.
“I think it taught us a lot about our basketball abilities, it taught us the mental capacity that we have to have, the physical strength, and the body, the maintenance we have to have,” Lowry said. “Rio, I think, helped us even more. I know him, he feels really good about his game and the level he’s playing at, and I feel good about the level I can play at, and just continue to get better. And never being satisfied with just ‘OK, we did this.’
“Now what’s next? We’ve got to find it, figure out what’s next and get to that level.”
Those shared experiences, good and bad, have cemented the bond between the two men, the previously recalcitrant Lowry and DeRozan, who was painfully shy and quiet when he first arrived in Toronto.
They have given the Raptors lead- ership and wins and great times, they have given fans hope, given teammates examples to follow.
And they have never lost sight of the ultimate goal.
“I think they’re going to lean on us, the younger guys that we have that will play, I think they’ll definitely lean on us a lot more,” Lowry said. “And I look forward to it. The last couple years, being a leader of the team and having DeMar help me being a leader of the team, being coleaders of the team.
“I think the experiences that we’ve had the last three years, four years, will just help our team grow and make us be better leaders.”