Kyle Lowry’s No. 7 is going up in the rafters on Jan. 10, and it will make him just the second player in the history of the Raptors to have his jersey retired.
The ceremony is set for a home game against the 76ers, Lowry’s hometown team, which is a nice scheduling touch on top of the actual news. Vince Carter got his No. 15 retired in November 2024. That’s the entire list before Lowry joins it.
Thirty-one seasons of Raptors basketball, and two players made the cut.
I grew up watching my dad drive past State Farm Stadium every time we visited Phoenix, pointing up like the Cardinals’ retired numbers were still hanging there even though we were nowhere near the building. That’s what a retired number is supposed to do: give a fan base something permanent to point at. Toronto has two things to point at now, and one of them just finished the sentence the other one started.
Lowry earned his. Nine seasons in Toronto, six All-Star nods, and the only championship this franchise has ever won, in 2019. Raptors Republic has him as the franchise’s all-time leader in assists, steals, 3-pointers, triple-doubles, and charges drawn, a leaderboard built on winning playoff games rather than highlight reels.
He made it official on July 7, signing a ceremonial one-day contract to close out a 20-year career that also ran through Memphis, Houston, Miami, and Philadelphia. “I’ve been looking forward to this moment for years,” he said. “I always said that Toronto is home, and that I’d retire a Raptor.” Raptors GM Bobby Webster confirmed the jersey plan that same day.
https://twitter.com/theScore/status/2074490420256502164
That’s about as official as a jersey number gets before the actual ceremony.
But that’s not even the most interesting part of a list with two names on it. The interesting part is how it got so short. Kawhi Leonard needed a trade to come back to Toronto just to visit, and he played one championship season here before leaving as a free agent the same summer he won it.
DeMar DeRozan gave the franchise nine years and got shipped out in the deal that brought Leonard in. Chris Bosh gave it seven and forced his way to Miami. This is a team that has watched almost every good player it developed either walk for a bigger market or get traded before a number could mean anything.
Two retired numbers isn’t a museum. It’s an admission. Carter and Lowry aren’t just the best players in franchise history, they’re close to the only ones who stuck around long enough, and played well enough while they did, for this organization to build something that lasted.
Everyone else passed through.
The Sixers being the opponent that night is a coincidence of scheduling that reads like poetry anyway. Lowry grew up in Philadelphia, and he’ll stand under his own number, in the building where he won the one thing this franchise has to show for 31 years, across the court from the team he grew up rooting for. It’s a hell of a frame for a jersey retirement ceremony. It doesn’t change what the rafters actually say about this franchise.
Toronto’s only proof it ever built something that lasted has two numbers on it.
