Kyle Lowry: The Greatest Raptor of All Time
TORONTO — Greatest.
It’s a word that gets thrown around too easily, stretched to fit every hot take and highlight reel. But on a crisp Saturday morning in downtown Toronto, about 1,500 people showed up to Maple Leaf Square and gave it a very specific definition.
They called it Kyle Lowry.
Not DeMar DeRozan, the franchise leader in points and games played. Not Vince Carter, the original high-flyer who turned Canada on to basketball. Not even Kawhi Leonard, the most gifted player ever to wear a Raptors jersey and the man who delivered the title.
They came for the small guard from North Philly, the one who arrived with a chip on his shoulder and a reputation for being hard to handle, not hard to stop on the scoreboard. The one whose No. 7 will be the quickest jersey in Toronto sports history to reach the rafters.
A Block Party for a point guard who never led the league in scoring, who never chased the spotlight, who never tried to be anything other than himself.
“Longevity, all the moments, and the stats as well, but the stats are only a little part of it,” one fan said, asking not to be named. “From start to finish, everything he brought. I don't want to get too emotional, but ... I think for everyone, it's pretty clear.”
Clear enough that Maple Leaf Square — Jurassic Park to the rest of the league — turned into a shrine to No. 7 for more than three hours. Fans moved through Lowry-themed exhibits, posed with a commemorative Raptor statue, and listened as former teammates tried to put into words why this particular player, on this particular team, means this much.
For Kuya Naredo, who won tickets to “A Night For Seven,” the charity gala capping Lowry’s celebration weekend, the answer came down to one word.
“Community,” he said. “Kyle Lowry is the greatest Raptor of all time because that man is resilient. He did everything he could every day. He led Toronto, he led Canada and he led the Raptors.
“(Lowry) brought Toronto together, and so we've got to come together for him.”
Lowry knew it, too. Standing on stage, looking out at a crowd that has lived and died with him for nearly a decade, he reminded them where this all started.
“We started this, the whole Jurassic Park thing,” the six-time all-star told the fans. “Everybody wants to have their own little version, but take pride in knowing we were the first to do this.”
The pressure, the expectation, the energy of those playoff nights — all of it helped forge his bond with the city. On Saturday, that bond was on full display.
C.J. Miles, who shared a locker room with Lowry from 2017 to 2019, called him “an architect of the culture that eventually put the team on the mountaintop.”
“I think someone who is that embedded into a city, an organization, a team, and to be able to give his all to something like that, and it reflects him, I think that's what makes him the greatest Raptors of all time,” Miles said.
Danny Green, who has seen dynasties from the inside, pushed it even further.
“(Lowry is) one of the best players to come through our league,” Green said. “For a guy that size to play 20 years, one of the best teammates I've ever had ... I wouldn't miss this for the world.”
This from a man who won with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Leonard in San Antonio, and later with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Green has shared locker rooms with legends. He still made a point of being in Toronto for this.
He wasn’t alone. Chuck Hayes, Terrence Ross, Miles, Green, Fred VanVleet — the roll call of ex-Raptors kept growing. So did the tributes. Over and over, they circled back to the same phrase: “best fans in the league.”
Only one voice broke from the script, and he did it with a grin.
“I know this is Kyle's day, but isn't this 'LeBronto?'” Kevin Love cracked, leaning into the old joke from his Cleveland Cavaliers days, when LeBron James routinely crushed Toronto’s postseason dreams.
Boos rained down for a heartbeat. Then the tone flipped again as DeRozan walked on stage.
Lowry’s longest-running partner in Toronto, the man who shared the burden of turning a middling franchise into a contender, saved his words for last.
“It means the world to me to be able to be here to celebrate ... the guy who finished this thing off,” DeRozan told the crowd. “He's definitely the greatest Raptor of all time. The things he's been able to do for this city are amazing.”
Lowry listened to all of it, the praise from peers, the chants from fans, the roar that greeted an impromptu key to the city from Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow. When it was his turn to speak, he kept it simple.
“Humbled by it,” he said.
He explained that the Block Party wasn’t some corporate afterthought; it was part of his plan from the start.
“When we put this plan together, (a block party) was one of the things I wanted to do to show love to the fans, honestly, because they mean everything,” Lowry said. “This basketball thing wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for them. It turned out exactly how I thought it would. I appreciate the fans coming out here. I appreciate the Raptors organization for allowing this to happen and putting forth such an amazing effort and making this weekend spectacular.”
The organization’s effort didn’t go unnoticed in the old guard, either.
Green put Toronto in rare company.
He grouped the Raptors with the Spurs as “the top two organizations that take care of the players, look out for the players ... while you're there, the city, the fans, nothing like it. So, again, I can't praise the city or the fans enough about how special they make us feel.”
VanVleet, the undrafted guard who slid into Lowry’s role when he was traded to the Miami Heat in 2021, now with the Houston Rockets but still calling Toronto “home,” saw something deeper in the weekend.
“As a player, you put so much time and sacrifice, blood, sweat, tears into your craft and your game, you play every night, and so to see that paid back now at the end of his career, it's just a special day,” VanVleet said. “This is what sports is about, and we know what he means to this country, and so it's always just nice to see that it is paid back.”
Lowry wants that standard to stick. He doesn’t see his celebration as a one-off, but a template.
“Hopefully we're doing this again at some point when (DeRozan's) No. 10 is going up in the rafters,” he said. “That 10 has to go up there.”
Green agreed with the order of things.
“DeMar will have his moment at some point, Kawhi will have his moment, but we're here to celebrate the greatest Raptor of all time and give him his flowers,” he said.
The fans did their part. They chanted “GROAT.” They begged for “one more year.” They lined up for autographs and photos as Lowry lingered, each wave of gratitude pulling him back toward the barricades for just a few more signatures, a few more selfies.
The plea for a comeback drew a smile, but not a concession.
“Great chant, love it. Not gonna happen,” Lowry said.
Instead, he left them with instructions.
“Continue to be the best fans that you've been,” he told them. “Continue to rule the league in attendance. Continue to be you, unapologetically be you ... and hopefully there's another championship that comes through here, and I can be a part of that celebration with this organization and that group.”
Then the music faded, the square emptied, and the Block Party came to an end.
Only the story isn’t quite finished.
On Jan. 10, when LeBron James and Lowry’s hometown Philadelphia 76ers visit Scotiabank Arena, No. 7 will rise to the rafters next to Carter’s No. 15. A kid from North Philly, immortalized in a Canadian cathedral of basketball.
For a franchise still chasing its next title, it’s a reminder of what greatness really looks like — and who defined it for a generation in Toronto.
