Kyle Lowry announced that he is retiring from the NBA and signing a one-day contract with the Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors held a press conference today to honor Lowry. Lowry reflected on his time as a Raptor while taking questions from the media.
“I think this place has just been special for me since the day I got here. We had some rough times… but being around the city, country, and organization, this is a special place… It was only right,” Lowry said.
Raptors General Manager and Executive Vice President Bobby Webster told the media that they will retire Lowry’s number seven jersey this season.
As of this writing, the date for Lowry’s jersey retirement has not been made official yet.
Lowry was drafted to the Memphis Grizzlies with the 24th pick of the 2006 NBA draft.
Three seasons later, he was traded to the Houston Rockets in a three-team deal involving the Orlando Magic.
After missing out on signing Steve Nash, former Raptors General Manager Bryan Colangelo was looking for other ways to add a point guard to the team.
That’s when he acquired Lowry from the Houston Rockets for Gary Forbes and the 2013 first-round pick, which turned into Steven Adams.
During his nine seasons in Toronto, Lowry became a six-time All-Star, a one-time All-NBA third-team selection, and an NBA champion.
Before Lowry was a Raptor, Toronto only won one playoff series.
Since Lowry became a Raptor, the franchise has won nine playoff series, including winning the 2019 NBA Finals.
Both Lowry and DeMar DeRozan got the Raptors to the playoffs in the 2013-14 season. And that started the We the North era.
This was the most successful era of the franchise because this is when they were in the postseason for seven straight seasons and won a championship.
Lowry’s name is in a lot of the franchise’s all-time stats. He’s second in points with 10,540, second in games with 601, first in assists with 4277, etc.
The Raptors are retiring Kyle Lowry’s #7. He’s officially retiring as a Toronto Raptor.
His franchise ranks, regular season & playoffs:
1st in wins
1st in assists
1st in threes
2nd in pointsRaptors have 1 playoff series win without Kyle Lowry. They have 9 series wins with him.
— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) July 7, 2026
He last played for the Raptors in the 2020-21 season. In the 2021 offseason, Lowry decided to leave Toronto to play for the Miami Heat via a sign-and-trade.
Three seasons later, he was traded to the Charlotte Hornets, but he never played a game for the Hornets because he was waived so he could join his hometown team, the Philadelphia 76ers.
After the press conference, it was announced that Lowry and his wife, Ayahna, will join the ownership group of the Toronto Tempo.
Forever Toronto legends continue to make an impact on the city’s basketball history.
NBA champion @Klow7, and entrepreneur and philanthropist Ayahna Cornish-Lowry, have joined the Tempo ownership group, further strengthening the organization’s commitment to growing women’s… pic.twitter.com/phVv9tR62M
— Toronto Tempo (@TempoBasketball) July 7, 2026
In Lowry’s 20-year career, he played with the Grizzlies, the Rockets, the Heat, and the 76ers. But the team that Lowry will be most remembered for is the Raptors.
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