Lowry Demar

02/19/2025 11:56 PM

Chemistry, both on and off the court, isn’t innate — rather, it’s something that needs to be nurtured. The Raptors learned that lesson in the early 2010s.

Looking back on the We The North era now, it’s hard to even picture a time when Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan weren’t essentially conjoined at the hip. The two were nearly inseparable, and some of the brightest memories Raptors fans have are of the duo laughing or crying together as each other’s ride-or-die teammate.

However, in their first year together during the 2012-13 season, the fit was imperfect at best. And though their lockers were right next to one another, that was about the closest they got — according to some, they didn’t even have each other’s phone numbers.

“I just couldn’t stand him,” DeRozan said about Lowry in the latest episode of Raptors Delight, a Sportsnet documentary about the rise of the franchise. “We were such opposites as people.”

Their differing personalities and perspectives may have had something to do with how each player made his way to Toronto in the first place.

On the heels of a quiet rookie season in 2009-10, DeRozan immediately took up the mantle as the team’s homegrown hero following Chris Bosh’s departure in free agency. After the forward took his talents to South Beach, the rookie wing ingratiated himself into the hearts of Raptors fans, sending out an iconic tweet telling the city he would be the star that stayed.

He blossomed into a reliable scorer in Year 2, netting 17.2 points per game as the team’s No. 2 scorer behind Andrea Bargnani but immediately surpassing him as the future of the franchise.

Lowry, on the other hand, wasn’t as sold on the idea of Toronto, and the prospect of befriending DeRozan following his 2012 trade didn’t seem likely.

“Even from his standpoint it was just like ‘I’m here and I’m leaving soon,’” DeRozan said. “It didn’t feel like it was gonna be anything established.”

Added Lowry: “I was a kid coming in here with attitude, not wanting to be here.”

Before joining the Raptors, Lowry had established himself as a player who would go about things his own way and march to the beat of his own drum. He was a steady point guard on the Rockets who was perhaps more known for his attitude than his play, and the prospect of Toronto trading for him came with all kinds of uncertainties.

“Kyle had a bit of a reputation for being something that needed to be managed,” then-general manager Bryan Colangelo said.

Reining him in was tough in that first go-round, as Lowry’s averages dipped to 11.6 points and 6.4 assists while shooting 40.1 per cent from the field and 36.2 per cent from three-point range.

And the fit with DeRozan was anything but obvious, both on and off the court, as the Raptors finished with a 34-48 record in the 2012-13 campaign and missed the post-season after finishing last in the Atlantic.

"It just felt like it didn't mesh well,” DeRozan said, “But I admired how he approached the game. He had everything that I wanted." 

As time went on, DeRozan, who was only 23 in that first year alongside the 26-year-old Lowry, took the time to observe his older compatriot. His quiet and reserved personality started to find ways to complement the more brash and in-your-face Lowry.

The Raptors traded forward Rudy Gay the next season, and though DeRozan and Lowry thought they would be next up on the chopping block after a slow start to the year, they both stuck around.

During a flight from Los Angeles to San Antonio in December, both players stressed about their imminent future but found ways to bond through it, spending the entire time talking and asking each other if they had been traded yet.

Then they landed and nothing had changed, other than perhaps a newfound appreciation for one another and a chemistry that was only beginning to blossom. The team rattled off wins in nine of their next 12 games en route to a 48-34 record on the season.

As the bond between the two grew, success followed.

"To see them grow as friends in a really, really, I think, authentic way — it wasn't natural at first — it was really cool to watch from afar,” general manager Bobby Webster said.

"They relied on each other. They knew what the other was going to do. Really like a dynamic duo,” team president Masai Ujiri added.

What began as a cold shoulder turned into one of the most warm friendships the team has ever seen — one that came to define an era of Raptors basketball. And though they were split up in the summer of 2018, the bond they shared is etched forever in the hearts and minds of the city they came to embrace in their own way.

The third episode of “Raptors Delight,” titled The Re-birth, will air on Feb. 23, following the Raptors’ game against the Phoenix Suns on Sportsnet One.