Title: Kyle Lowry’s legacy of lifting those around him was bigger than anything else he did for Raptors
Date: August 3, 2021
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: In my latest for The Athletic Toronto, I wrote about Kyle Lowry’s lasting legacy with the Raptors: The ability to help everyone around him reach their potential.
Lucas Nogueira was holding a towel over his face at his locker. He said it was because he was still sweating after his post-game shower. His bright, beaming smile when the towel came down betrayed him.
Nogueira, who had dealt with both physical and mental health issues over his first two seasons in the league, was feeling an enormous weight come off his shoulders. It was an otherwise nondescript series of games early in the 2016-17 season, and “Bebe” would pivot back to being injured, inconsistent or otherwise unavailable sooner than he would have liked. This week, though, he’d turned in four great games in a row, culminating in a performance against the New York Knicks where, donned in the boxer blue of the Raptors’ better Huskies throwback, he and Kyle Lowry spent every break in play deep in conversation and instruction, wide grins across their faces.
“Yeah, let’s take a minute. I want to say thanks to Kyle and DeMar (DeRozan),” Nogueira said, first with a laugh and then with a turn to the more serious. “Because the fans, they don’t know, they don’t live with us. They just come, watch the game, go home. They don’t know what those guys do to me. Since my first year here, they always told me to keep working because they believe in my talent. So now I have a chance to play with them, so I feel special. It’s a great moment to me.”
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 