Toronto community misses Lowry’s big heart

One morning earlier this week, Cliff Lee was going through his Kyle Lowry jerseys, trying to decide which one to wear to Lowry's long-awaited return to Toronto.

TORONTO – One morning earlier this week, Cliff Lee was going through his Kyle Lowry jerseys, trying to decide which one to wear to Lowry’s long-awaited return to Toronto.

It was a tough call. Lee has over 40 Lowry jerseys, from the No. 3 shirt he wore when he arrived in Toronto in 2012 in a trade with Houston (Andrea Bargnani wore No. 7 at the time), to the sleeved camouflage jersey, the blue Toronto Huskies jersey, and the red Christmas jersey with cursive writing from 2014.

Lee finally settled on the red “Earned” jersey — red with “North” written in a white chevron– from the Raptors’ thrilling win over Golden State to capture the 2019 NBA title.

“They weren’t supposed to wear those for a lot of games that season, but they kept winning in them so they just kept wearing them. They’re pretty hard to find,” said Lee, who has about 400 Raptors jerseys tucked away in the basement of his Brampton, Ont., house.

They’re “out of sight, out of mind,” he said with a chuckle, from his wife Jennifer Evangehlo-Lee, who’s become a big Raptors fan.

Lowry hasn’t played a game in Toronto since February of 2020, before COVID-19 first shuttered the league, and then saw the Raptors exiled to Tampa, Fla., because of pandemic restrictions in Ontario.

Lowry and the Miami Heat play the Raptors on Sunday in what will be an emotional night both for the 36-year-old player who forged a strong bond with Toronto, and the city that fell in love with the hard-headed, hardworking Philadelphia native.

“He represents a lot of things that the Raptors represent, right?” said Lee, a Raptors fan since their first season in 1995-96.