TORONTO — Kyle Lowry is getting softer in basketball practice.
In his prime, Lowry would never have made a pregame media appearance during a Philadelphia Eagles game, much less spent 10 minutes answering questions immediately after the Eagles allowed a touchdown in a playoff game. He also didn’t let anything get between him and the utterance of four-letter words.
“Sometimes I try to talk to them as a coach,” Lowry said of his work with Philadelphia 76ers teammates Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecomb, young guards who are pillars of the team. “As a player, I wish I could say certain things and say, ‘Do this, do that.’ It’s a balance of not being able to yell and curse at them because I know I’m not on the court. But I can say, ‘Look, this is what I see.’ Let’s do it. ”
Oh, how hard old Laurie would have to realize this! Still, it would have been hard to imagine Lowry, the Toronto Raptors’ longest-running centerpiece and highly competitive point guard, settling into a role somewhere between coach and player.
Coming to Toronto for what will likely be the last time of his career — a playoff series between the two teams is very much in the cards — this version of the franchise’s most beloved player is hard to pin down. Lowry has played just 43 minutes in five games this season, just over two months shy of his 40th birthday. Sixers manager Nick Nurse, who first coached Lowry as a Raptors assistant in 2013, offered insight into things like when the team is available to practice and when players can rest, calling the veteran a “middleman” between Lowry and the players.
It’s not that Lowry didn’t have the intelligence to play the role. The question mark is patience.
“No, not patience. But I know his character deep down,” said Garrett Temple, a friend of Lowry’s and a Raptors veteran who has played a similar role in Toronto for the past three years. “I don’t want to say that once he gets out of his competitive mode, but he gets out of his ‘I’m that guy’ mode, his personality makes him want to give back. That’s the type of person he is. I’m not surprised he was able to flip that switch.”
“Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to be around guys like Fred VanVleet,” Lowry added, referring to his former Toronto protégé. “It was like, ‘Why don’t we just keep doing that and help a guy like Tyrese Maxey?'” And fortunately, they draft players like V.J. There are two young men. And Jared McCain. Sometimes games give you something to do. ”
Then again, old Laurie may have scoffed at the signs from the universe. There’s something about him that goes beyond the veteran minimum. Lowry turned 20 in the same year that LeBron James is breaking records by playing his 23rd year. As he pointed out, he’s only the second player under 6 feet to reach this milestone, but it also feels like John Stockton, who is listed at 6-1, should be on the club along with Lowry and Chris Paul.
Obviously it’s special to be able to play in the league for this long, but it’s strange. Nurse said Lowry was the most competitive player he ever coached and will be remembered as the player who made three or four game-winning plays in a 60-second span. He can’t do that anymore. Yes, it’s inevitable, but you can imagine how frustrating it can be.
It was funny that Lowry called this season “stress-free.” What was great about Lowry was that he cared about everything and found a way to take advantage of every moment. He is the greatest of all time to urge the referee to pass the ball as an inbounder while the opposing team insists on the call.
Regardless, he found a way to contribute. You can tell it’s important to him too.
“The older you get, the more emotional you become. You get more emotional,” Lowry said of the Sixers guards’ enthusiasm for his brand of coaching.
“This means a lot, because I’m genuinely committed to them and I’m sacrificing myself for them. I don’t care about who I am as a basketball player. At the end of my career, I realize what I’ve done. What I’ve done is, so far, I’ve given everything I can to this game, physically and mentally.”
At halftime Sunday night, Lowry’s Eagles had just surrendered a lead in Philadelphia, a game they would ultimately lose. There were about four minutes left in the football game. It seemed certain that Lowry would sit back and watch the game end. Instead, he was out with the team. Don’t confuse that with heroism, because that’s literally his job. But it was notable.
Looking at his career, it seemed impossible that Kyle Lowry wouldn’t be furious about the dying of light. In fact, Rory seems happy. He seems relieved.