Kyle Lowry was in the middle of answering questions at his retirement press conference Tuesday when his phone buzzed. He looked down. It was Vince Carter.
Carter, the guy who basically put the Raptors on the map before Lowry ever got there, was calling him on FaceTime right there in front of the cameras. Lowry answered. Carter congratulated him on the retirement. Some reporters in the room laughed. It was one of those moments that feels scripted but absolutely wasn’t.
The whole thing happened because Lowry just signed a one-day contract with Toronto so he could officially retire as a Raptor. He spent most of the 2010s as the team’s point guard, won a title there in 2019, and made multiple All-Star games. He last played for the 76ers but nobody really associates him with Philadelphia.
Lowry’s path from playoff frustration to a ring
For years, Lowry and DeMar DeRozan formed one of the best backcourts in the East. They won a lot of regular season games. Then the playoffs would roll around and the Raptors would flame out. It became a running joke. LeBron James basically lived in their heads.
Then 2018 happened. Toronto traded DeRozan to San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard. That move changed everything. Lowry and Leonard clicked, the Raptors steamrolled through the East, and they beat the Warriors in six games for the franchise’s first championship. Lowry went nuclear from three-point range in Game 6 and helped close it out.
After that, Lowry bounced around a bit. He had a real run with Miami, helping the Heat get to the Finals in 2023. But his identity is still Toronto. Always will be.
The FaceTime call from Carter was a nice reminder of that. Two icons of the franchise. One retiring. The other calling in from wherever to say congrats. That’s the kind of moment that doesn’t need a big write-up. It just is what it is.
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