{"id":17907,"date":"2014-07-03T17:21:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T09:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=17907"},"modified":"2014-07-03T17:21:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T09:21:13","slug":"torontos-his-home-star-point-guard-kyle-lowry-re-signs-with-toronto-raptors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/07\/03\/torontos-his-home-star-point-guard-kyle-lowry-re-signs-with-toronto-raptors\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto\u2019s His Home: star point guard Kyle Lowry re-signs with Toronto Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kyle<\/a>
Kyle Lowry. Photo by Randy Stern \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO\u2014Kyle Lowry isn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n

The veteran point guard who led the Toronto Raptors to their first post-season appearance in five years said Wednesday on Twitter he\u2019s staying put.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ain\u2019t Amir jersey y\u2019all!! Lol….. it\u2019s for the 2014-15 season cause Toronto will be my home city,\u201d said Lowry, who added a picture of himself in a vintage Raptors jersey.<\/p>\n

Lowry\u2019s deal is US$48 million through four years with an opt-out after the third year, according to multiple reports. League rules restrict signings or trades until July 10, but players and their agents are allowed to confirm agreements.<\/p>\n

Re-signing Lowry, the top point guard available in NBA free agency, was a No. 1 priority for the Raptors after a stellar season. The Raps finished a franchise-best 46-34 in the regular season to win the Atlantic Division before losing in seven games to Brooklyn in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s resurgence can be in part credited to Lowry. The 28-year-old averaged career highs with 17.9 points-per-game and 7.4 assists-per-game. He was even better in the post-season, averaging 21.1 points against the Nets.<\/p>\n

Lowry was spectacular in Game 5, scoring a career playoff high of 36 points.<\/p>\n

After re-signing coach Dwane Casey to a three-year deal in May, Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri said Lowry was his next target.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important (to re-sign Lowry) in terms of continuity,\u201d said Ujiri. \u201cKyle has had a phenomenal year. I thought Kyle was a huge, huge key to our season. For me, negotiating is easy if we want Kyle to be here and Kyle wants to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The six-foot, 205-pound player was acquired by Toronto in a 2012 trade with Houston. He came to the Raptors with a reputation for being difficult and averaged just 11.9 points and 6.4 assists in his first year with the team.<\/p>\n

But Lowry appeared to begin the 2013-14 season with a more positive outlook. By the time the team was cleaning out the locker-room Lowry\u2019s teammates were referring to him as the Raptors\u2019 heart and soul.<\/p>\n

_ With files from Lori Ewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\u2014Kyle Lowry isn\u2019t going anywhere. The veteran point guard who led the Toronto Raptors to their first post-season appearance in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":17908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-sports","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}