{"id":119809,"date":"2026-07-07T14:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/119809\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T14:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:06:10","slug":"kyle-lowry-announces-retirement-from-the-nba-as-a-toronto-raptor-nbc-sports-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/119809\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Lowry announces retirement from the NBA as a Toronto Raptor \u2013 NBC Sports Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Lowry\u2019s long road in the NBA is ending as a Raptor.<\/p>\n

Lowry announced Tuesday morning (July 7) that he\u2019s \u201cofficially retiring as a Toronto Raptor.\u201d The team shared the news with the words \u201c#7 FOREVER\u201d and a video narrated by Lowry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate enough to play this game for two decades,\u201d Lowry said. \u201cAll my stops … Memphis, Houston, Miami, Philly \u2014 of course Philly, all my love to Philly \u2014 and last but not least, Toronto, my home. So thank you to my family, my friends, my teammates, my coaches, my opponents, staff, the media and especially the fans. It\u2019s all about you. I appreciate you. <\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, Toronto. Thank you, Canada. And as I always told y\u2019all, it\u2019s officially happening. I\u2019m officially retiring as a Toronto Raptor. Twenty years and one day. Seven forever. I love y\u2019all. Peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

SportsNet\u2019s Michael Grange reported<\/a> Lowry\u2019s retirement last week and wrote, \u201cThe event on Tuesday is expected to set the stage for additional recognition of the so-called GROAT (the Greatest Raptor of All-Time) as the 2026-27 season unfolds, per sources, with a likely jersey retirement planned at Scotiabank Arena during the regular season, where Lowry\u2019s No. 7 would join Vince Carter\u2019s No. 15 as the only Raptors jersey hanging at the downtown stadium.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lowry, 40, has built an excellent case to one day be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. After two years at Villanova, Lowry became a six-time All-Star, quintessential floor general and franchise legend with the Raptors. He helped Toronto earn its first NBA championship in 2019 and also won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lowry was a member of his hometown Sixers for the final two-plus seasons of his career. He appeared in 72 games and averaged 4.7 points and 3.0 assists.<\/p>\n

Though Lowry struggled to stay healthy and wasn\u2019t a regular part of the rotation, he appreciated his chances to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always fun to play basketball,\u201d Lowry said after an April 1, 2025 game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.<\/a> \u201cListen, we\u2019re privileged and we\u2019re honored to play the game of basketball. I love this game at the highest level. It\u2019s provided for me and my family, my friends with everything that I could ask for. So I wanted to try to go out there and play, and just have fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know how long this game is going to last for each individual, so just go out there and enjoy the process. Just enjoy being out there and in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Off the court, Lowry was impactful for the Sixers. He actively mentored young guards such as Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe and often looked like an assistant coach during games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Toronto basketball, No. 7 will always be Lowry\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat (number) represents me,\u201d Lowry said. \u201cIt represents my family. It represents everything I\u2019ve gone through, the growth, the maturity, everything I\u2019ve put into the game of basketball. It just represents Kyle Lowry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard work, grit, passion and, of course, a champion. The guy who was there, the guy who stuck through everything, believing it was supposed to be what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to happen and it did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Lowry\u2019s long road in the NBA is ending as a Raptor. Lowry announced Tuesday morning (July 7)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4817,996,38825,5057,40691,40692,48],"class_list":["post-119809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-kyle-lowry","tag-nba","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-sixers-analysis","tag-sixers-news","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}