Kyle Lowry, American basketball player
Kyle Terrell Lowry (born March 25, 1986) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been a six-time NBA All-Star and was named to the All-NBA Third Team in 2016. Lowry won an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, their first title in franchise history. He was a member of the U.S. national team that won a gold medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Lowry played two seasons of college basketball with the Villanova Wildcats before he was selected by the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the 2006 NBA draft with the 24th overall pick. He began his NBA career with Memphis and the Houston Rockets before being traded to Toronto. In his second season with the Raptors, he helped them reach the playoffs for the first time in seven years and win an Atlantic Division title during the 2013–14 season. In 2015–16, he led the Raptors to 56 wins in what was then the highest win total in franchise history, as well as helped the team make the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time.
Lowry is seen as the greatest Toronto Raptor player of all time due to his work in turning the franchise around, from the post-Vince Carter era to a legitimate NBA contender bringing the franchise its first championship in 2019. The Raptors had their greatest success under Lowry, from their two Eastern Conference Finals berths to all five of their 50 wins campaigns. The Raptors regularly improved their win totals with Lowry at the helm.