Kyle Lowry's No. 7 to be Retired by Raptors

Kyle Lowry’s No. 7 is headed where it always felt destined to be — into the rafters at Scotiabank Arena.

The Toronto Raptors announced Thursday that they will retire Lowry’s jersey on Jan. 10, when the franchise icon returns to town as they host his hometown Philadelphia 76ers. Vince Carter will finally have company in the building’s permanent skyline, and for many in Toronto, it’s the number they expected to see up there first.

Lowry, 40, has been preparing for this moment in his mind for years. He walked away from the NBA after the 2025-26 season with the 76ers, then came back to where his legend was made, signing a one-day contract on July 7 to retire as a Raptor. The paperwork made it official. The ceremony will make it eternal.

“I’ve been looking forward to this moment for years. I always said that Toronto is home, and that I’d retire a Raptor, and to see my No. 7 go up in that building is going to mean everything to me,” Lowry said in a statement released by the team.

This isn’t just a jersey retirement. It’s a week-long tribute to the player who dragged, willed and led the Raptors from plucky outsider to NBA champion. Toronto will honour Lowry with special events at home games against Minnesota on Jan. 7 and Utah on Jan. 8, setting the stage for the main event three nights later.

The greatest Raptor

Call it what it is: Lowry has a powerful claim as the greatest player in Raptors history.

He spent nine seasons in Toronto, reshaping both the franchise and its identity. The Raptors didn’t just win with Lowry. They grew up. They became relevant. Then they became champions.

He was the heartbeat of the 2019 title run, the undersized point guard who never stopped taking charges, barking at teammates, arguing calls and hitting big shots. His Game 6 performance in the 2019 NBA Finals remains the defining snapshot of his Raptors career: Lowry scored the first 11 points of the night, setting the tone in a clincher that delivered the franchise’s first championship.

The box score numbers tell one story. The banners tell another.

Lowry retires with career averages of 13.8 points, six assists and four rebounds per game. Solid on paper. But in Toronto, those numbers are wrapped in something larger: six All-Star selections, every one of them earned in a Raptors uniform, and an All-NBA third-team nod after the 2015-16 season, when he helped push the club into the league’s upper tier.

His name dominates the Raptors record book. He is the franchise leader in assists, steals, three-pointers and triple-doubles. He sits second in games played and points. When the stakes rose, he rose with them: he also tops the Raptors charts in playoff points and playoff games.

Those are not the stats of a good player who passed through. They are the fingerprints of an era.

A bond with a city

Lowry’s connection with Toronto was never just about numbers. It was about edge. About stubbornness. About a point guard who looked like the city played basketball — tough, undersized, constantly underestimated, and unwilling to back down.

“We built something special here — my teammates, the organization, the city and the fans, and all of Canada. We became champions together, and to be able to share this night with all of them, and with my family, is going to mean a lot to me,” Lowry said.

That “we” is doing a lot of work. It stretches from the early playoff heartbreaks to the peak of June 2019. It includes the nightly grind at Scotiabank Arena, the packed viewing parties outside, and the sense that, for once, the basketball world had to look north.

On Jan. 10, when No. 7 rises to the rafters, it will mark more than the end of a career. It will close the loop on the most transformative chapter the Raptors have ever known — and pose the question that will hang in that arena long after the lights go down: