Growing Pains | The Players’ Tribune
When I was traded to Toronto, I figured I’d do my thing and show my talents, but in two years I would become a free agent and I’d be gone. I didn’t try hard enough in the beginning to click with Dwane Casey. And Dwane was more comfortable with José Calderón and the style he played.
In the summer of 2013, heading into my second season with the Raptors and a contract year, I had a lot of important conversations with people: Raptors GM Masai Ujiri, my agent, Andy Miller, Ty Lue and especially Chauncey Billups. They were all straight with me.
How come you are the component in everything that’s going wrong? How come everyone is saying your name? You’ve got to look in the mirror sometimes.
When you respect the people saying those things, it hits you right away. You don’t second guess it. This is what they saw, and I wanted to fix it. To be a great player, I had to grow up and be more mature. Understand not everyone was out to get me, and just listen to my coach and teammates and my organization. I had to learn to be the face of a franchise. To be a leader. To be that guy.
Raptors too good for bad losses now | Toronto Sun
“We focus on every game every day,” Lowry said hours before the Raptors and Timberwolves even tipped off. “We don’t look forward or past anyone. We take it really one day at a time and that is one area we have grown as a team. We are not worried about anything but the next game, the next situation, the next play, the next moment.”
So when that doesn’t happen and the Raptors slip up like they did in Minneapolis, it’s not just a bad game. It’s serious business.
Casey didn’t like it and his two locker room leaders didn’t like it.
They can’t say it won’t ever happen again because it does happen. That’s the nature of the NBA.
But watch how a team responds to these games and then you get an indication of what kind of team they really are.
Good teams don’t make or take excuses offered to them.
Good teams look at what they did wrong and they fix it.
The Toronto Raptors are a good team.
DeMar DeRozan has no plans to leave Toronto Raptors in free agency | ESPN
“My whole mindset has always been this is home for me,” DeRozan said in an interview that will air in full on Saturday’s Meet the All-Stars show on ESPN Radio at 5:30 p.m. “I never think otherwise unless it’s brought up to me, or you see things, or people ask you about certain things.
“This has always been home to me. I took pride in putting on this Toronto Raptors jersey since I’ve been drafted here. And my whole goal was to get this team to the point where it is now. And I feel I’ve been a major key to that.”
The Lowry-DeRozan Bromance That’s Paying Dividends for the Raptors | VICE Sports
Raptors assistant coach Rex Kalamian knows firsthand how star teammates getting along can help a team. Prior to joining Dwane Casey’s staff in 2015, he spent six seasons in Oklahoma City watching Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook grow individually and together as they helped turn their franchise into a contender.
“If you’re talking about your two stars, your two best players, which Kyle and DeMar are for us, when you put players together there’s a chemistry that’s built over time,” Kalamian said. “There’s a consistency that’s built over time and it doesn’t happen automatically. I think for the two of them, they’ve been together for four years now, so they’ve built up a foundation of winning. They’ve built up a foundation of playing together, of what each other likes, and doesn’t like, how they want the basketball, when they want the basketball.”
The Raptors’ 35-17 record at the All-Star break is largely due to how well their star guards have played not only together, but also apart. With DeMarre Carroll missing 29 of the team’s first 52 games and currently rehabbing from arthroscopic surgery, as well as Jonas Valanciunas missing 17 games with a fractured hand, Lowry and DeRozan have stepped up and are learning how to allow the other to take over when he’s feeling it.
LeBron James surprises Toronto students with new team uniforms | The Globe and Mail
The Cavaliers forward surprised school kids in Toronto by giving them new team uniforms on Thursday, a giveaway sponsored by James’ family foundation as a way of thanking this year’s host city for the NBA all-star game.
The new uniforms for 23 teams from a variety of sports, including basketball, badminton, cricket, ultimate Frisbee, rugby and a special needs group, were unveiled during a fashion show at Earl Haig Secondary School. The teams from across the city were chosen by the LeBron James Family Foundation as a reward for sportsmanship and leadership.
Dinos & Digits: It’s a Very Special All-Star Edition | Raptors HQ
Kyle Lowry (2) and DeMar DeRozan (2) join Vince Carter (5) and Chris Bosh (5) as the only Raptors in franchise history to represent Toronto in multiple All-Star games.
Lowry and DeRozan also simultaneously move into a tie for the third-most selections ever by a Raptor. The only All-Star selection that the team has had outside those four guys? Antonio Davis, whose one selection was as an injury replacement.
On that note, this is only the second time that there have been two Raptors in the same All-Star game, with the only other time being when Carter and Davis started together in 2000-01.
A star studded affair for the special screening of @giantsofafrica documentary at TIFF. #WeTheNorth
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This weekend, Toronto’s the centre of NBA universe: Arthur | Toronto Star
“It’s a good moment for us,” says Raptors GM Masai Ujiri. “To me, we’re set up well for success. And I always say that outside of history and winning, big-time winning, we’ve got everything here. We’ve got great ownership — I know sometimes people talk about Bell and Rogers, blah blah blah, Larry Tanenbaum — but they give us an incredible platform to perform. Our fans, I would argue that they’re top-three in the NBA. The atmosphere in the game, I’d definitely say top-three in the NBA. City? Toronto, a top-five city in the world.
Through the years: Raptors at NBA All-Star Weekend | Toronto Sun
Some of the brightest moments in the 21-year history of the Raptors franchise have come at the NBA’s annual all-star festivities.
Raptors players have performed better there, on average, than they have on the court.
Damon Stoudamire started it all, winning rookie game MVP way back in the team’s inaugural season, while Vince Carter’s soaring aerial display in Oakland in 2000 put the franchise on the map for the first time league-wide.
Masai making an appearance on @thesocialctv. #WeTheNorth #NBAAllStarTO
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The Starters followed their hoop dreams, and won: Arthur | Toronto Star
o Skeets, the skinny one, and Melas, the deep-voiced goateed one, started a weekly basketball podcast, which was one of the few of its kind. Soon they were getting e-mails from around the world; in what was still a digital wilderness, they became a little basketball island, and the loyalty they engendered was fierce.
“The audience was probably hilariously small, but it was really passionate, and I guess at the time that was enough for us to go to twice a week, and then daily, and try to do better and better,” says Skeets.
“They weren’t scripted at all; it didn’t feel forced, or like they had to hit any talking points,” says Kerby. “They were happy to go on diversions about reggae dancing, or whether Jason Maxiell should be an all-star. And them chasing down the things that interested them was what was so different, because it’s a lot easier to be passionate about that stuff than the stuff you have to talk about.
“They were just so inviting of their fans, and including their fans in the show as fans but as ways to get ideas. It was just unique stuff.”
James Johnson Watch Week 16: All-Star parties and unfortunate injuries | Raptors HQ
I’ve often wondered how the rest of the NBA population feels about All-Star weekend, the league’s most exclusive event in some ways. It’s a party open to all in the league, sure, but they’re under no obligation to attend. Outside of the 24 names called, and the handful of skills/dunk/shooting competition contestants, a player can skip the whole thing entirely. Don’t feel like getting lost in sub-zero Toronto for three days? Book a flight to Aruba! It could be done. I suspect more than one NBA player has said out loud at least once “sure, yeah, let’s party” while in the back of their mind, they were thinking “oh man, I just want to sleep.” It happens. We’ve all been there.
We The North: How hoops became popular in Canada | USA Today
Raptors guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are All-Stars in the East, and Canadians Andrew Wiggins, Trey Lyles and Dwight Powell will play for the World team in the Rising Stars Challenge.
“It’s incredible that a young player in Canada can turn on the TV and he’s got a better than 50% chance that he see will an NBA player from Canada playing,” Nash told USA TODAY Sports. “That’s definitely changed. That was rare when I was in high school and college. Now, it’s expected and commonplace.”
Vince and the guy from Fresh Prince | TSN
McGrady shows up a couple of minutes later. I’d only have one other real conversation with T-Mac. It came after I did play-by-play for a Raptors game in Chicago. I was waiting for my cab, and he was waiting for his limo.
“I have a question about TSN,” he says.
“Fire away.”
“What is that curling shit?”
“Ah, it’s a pretty popular sport in Canada.”
“Seriously? People watch that? Guys with brooms standing around pointing at those big pucks with the handles?”
“Rocks. They call them rocks. And yes, lots of people apparently like it.”
“Damn,” he says, shaking his head. Then the limo pulls up with a girl in a fur coat in the back, and off T-Mac goes, into the Chicago night. Pucks with handles. Will never forget that.
Drake to Receive the Key to the City from Toronto Mayor John Tory | Complex CA
It’s nice to see our hometown hero get some shine from City Hall, but the question remains—what will Drake do with the Key to the City? Will he drape the city in black and gold? Will he appoint Kyle Lowry his deputy? Will he ensure shisha bars stay legal, and take all of his business meetings in pervert’s row at Club Paradise? We’ll just have to wait and see. More than ever before, this is Drake’s Toronto, and we’re just living in it.
Kyle Lowry embraces Adidas’ creative process | SI.com
“It is everybody’s dream,” he tells SI.com. “When you are at a certain point, yeah, you are trying to figure out how to leave some sort of legacy or your print on a company or a shoe.”
Lowry started his NBA career wearing Adidas, the German-based brand that owns a North American headquarters about three miles from Portland’s Moda Center. But he then switched to Peak, a Chinese brand. He returned to Adidas about 18 months ago, and now the Raptors’ two-time NBA All-Star starter—don’t forget the “starter” part—has a chance to create for Adidas. For himself.
“It is cool, it is like, ‘Wow, a company wants you to look good, wants you to be comfortable, but wants you to do it your way,’” Lowry says. “It makes you feel good.”These player edition meetings are about looking and feeling good.
5 Bold Predictions For The Second Half Of The NBA Season | Huffington Post
What makes Toronto — winners of 14 of 16 games — so tough is a steadfast commitment to quality defense, a trait that head coach Dwane Casey has demanded. His young team has responded and ranks better in overall defensive efficiency than the Cavs. Plus, the two-headed monster of All-Stars Kyle Lowry (21 points per game on 39 percent 3-point shooting) and DeMar DeRozan (23 points, 4 assists) is a formidable opponent on the perimeter. The Cavs, undoubtedly, are in trouble.
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