A year later there is no disputing which single player was most responsible for leading the Toronto Raptors to their first NBA title.
He was the Finals MVP and he plays for the Los Angeles Clippers now after a 12-month stint north of the border that will be forever legendary.
From his on-court production to the catalogue quirky quotes, Kawhi Leonard’s time as a Raptor was brief but almost impossibly impactful.
But on the anniversary of the Raptors championship, it might be worth putting Kyle Lowry’s contribution in a fuller context and recognizing the single player most responsible for turning the Raptors into a championship organization.
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“He knows everything that is going on around him. Every single thing,” is Raptors president Masai Ujiri’s scouting report on his longest-serving player. “And he just handles himself really, really well.”
Lowry got it done on the floor this time last year.
The Raptors title was a validation that shouldn’t have been necessary. But putting a ring on a player whose game is more about contributions that aren’t as easily captured by stats – unless you’re into the league’s ‘charges drawn’ leaders – provides a useful shorthand to swat away uninformed opinions with.
But in the context of the nearly three weeks of social unrest that has brought the United States and other countries to a potential reckoning on social and racial injustices, Lowry’s off-court contributions from a year ago deserve more discussion.
Two moments, in particular, stand out as Lowry was able to defuse tense and even racially charged moments and come out looking like the better man.
The first came in early in the fourth quarter of Game 3 at Oracle Arena in a win that signaled the Raptors weren’t just happy to be in their first Finals, but that they were there to be heard.
Lowry dives hard into the first row to save a ball headed out of bounds and ends up in the lap of a fan – another signature Lowry play. But before he can get back to the floor another fan pushes Lowry and yells at the Raptors star.
Lowry, agitated but cool in the moment, motions for the referees to intervene and minutes later the fan is escorted out of the building.
The punchline? The fan was Mark Stevens, a multibillionaire investor and part of the Warriors ownership group. He was eventually fined $500,000 and suspended by the NBA for a year.
But viewed in hindsight, the most interesting thing about the incident was what Lowry said the next day when asked about Stevens, who reportedly told him to “Go f— yourself” multiple times after shoving him.
“He showed his true colors at the time.”
And Lowry showed his too. While acknowledging he was furious about being hit and cursed for doing his job – and by a white owner with ties to the Republican party in Donald Trump’s America, no less – he was able to keep his composure.
How?
“By understanding at the moment my team needed me. Understanding that there are plenty of fans and kids in the world watching this game. Me being a grown man, having kids myself. I’m a grown man and my kids could always go back and see that,” Lowry said.
“If it wasn’t in this situation, things may have been — they probably would have been done differently, handled differently by me. But understanding that I have two young children and being able to hold myself to a certain standard, which I do, I hold myself to a high, high standard. And I have to make sure that I uphold that.
“That’s a big thing for me … never letting guys like him get under your skin because that’s bull crap.”
It’s fair to say that the Raptors storybook season would have had a much different ending had Lowry lost his temper or decided to respond to Stevens in kind with a shove or worse. A player hitting a fan – even if provoked – is something that would drown a suspension and likely altered the course of the series.
But Lowry wasn’t finished making big plays at key moments.
Lost in the mayhem of the Raptors’ Game 6, series-clinching win was Ujiri being halted and manhandled by a white Oakland police officer who claimed Ujiri didn’t display the specific credentials required to participate in the post-game ceremonies on the floor. Ujiri was originally charged with assault – the charges were dropped – but hasn’t spoken much about the incident publicly since he’s still the subject of a lawsuit, other than to call the civil suit ‘malicious’ and wonder if it’s only a coincidence that one of the NBA’s two Black team presidents was detained by a police officer from joining a celebration representing a lifetime of work?
Given what we’ve seen from police in the U.S. (and Canada at times) recently, it seems like a fair point to make.
Lowry’s play here was to reach into the crowd to pull Ujiri onto the floor. The scuffle was over by that point, but Ujiri was still in a sea of people, still visibly angry, rattled even; the joy in seeing the team he built win a title nowhere on his face.
Would things have gotten even more heated if Lowry hadn’t been there? Could what was a brief skirmish have turned more prolonged and uglier?
We’ll never know. But we know that Lowry, ever the point guard surveying the floor, was the one player who saw Ujiri in a jam and was there at the right time to make things right.
If there is a podcasting odd couple, this might be it. Donnovan Bennett and JD Bunkis don’t agree on much, but you’ll agree this is the best Toronto Raptors podcast going.
He’s kept at it. With Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green gone and with no obvious co-star as he had for years with DeMar DeRozan, the 2019-20 Raptors are every inch Lowry’s team, and the results show.
If possible, this version of the Raptors is smarter, more unselfish and more resilient than ever before with Lowry empowering game-changing basketball from across the Raptors lineup. It’s a big reason why — as the anniversary of their first title passes — there remains a strong internal belief that the Raptors are in a strong position to defend their championship.
And with the league on pause due to a pandemic and the streets full of protesters looking for the dismantling of systemic racism — the circumstances that allow for a while billionaire owner to feel entitled to push and curse a black opposing player or an over-zealous cop to profile a black executive at the peak of his career — Lowry is still making plays.
He’s been a key contributor on the National Basketball Players Association’s return-to-play committee, working with NBA commissioner Adam Silver as the league and the players find ways to salvage the season.
And he took part in a massive Black Lives Matter protest in his native Philadelphia after spreading his views to his 1.5 million Instagram followers.
Soon enough Lowry will be back on the floor doing what he does best although his place in Raptors lore will forever be secure.
He’s the point guard who sees everything, whose timing is perfect.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
