After the Toronto Raptors lost in the playoffs yet again this year, Kyle Lowry made it clear he might be on his way out. However, after some deep thinking about what he wanted to do going forward, the point guard decided to finish what he started in Toronto.
Lowry announced his decision to stay with Toronto in a column on The Players’ Tribune.
“But for me, at the end of the day, this was an easy decision. And all of those roads … they all led me back to the same place: home,” Lowry wrote “They all led me back to Toronto.”
Shortly after Lowry’s announcement, Shams Charania of The Vertical provided details on the deal, which turns out to be a three-year contract worth $100 million.
Kyle Lowry has agreed to a three-year, near $100M deal to return to Toronto, league source tells The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 2, 2017
So, the money obviously didn’t hurt.
However, the way Lowry described his decision-making process a lot of this had to do with his family. He saw that his son Karter, the oldest, was upset about the idea of leaving, staying in Toronto just felt like the right thing to do.
“I’m coming back to Toronto because my heart is telling me that it’s home — and because staying home, for me and my family, feels like the right thing to do. My heart is telling me that this is the best city in the world, with the best basketball fans in the world. It’s telling me that the Raptors can be a championship-level team, sooner than later. And I’ll be honest (and don’t hate) — it’s telling me that I’ve still never had poutine.
“But most of all: It’s telling me that, if you’re looking for people to believe in — choose the people who believed in you first.
“And if you start something?
“Man, you finish it.”