No coach in history has spent more time leading the Toronto Raptors than Dwane Casey.
During his 538 regular season games at the helm of the organization, Casey saw the team go from an Eastern Conference afterthought to a perennial playoff presence during his eight seasons with the team.
Casey coached the Raptors from 2011 to 2018, when he was fired following a 2017-18 season in which he was named NBA Coach of the Year.
After leaving Toronto, Casey then became head coach of the Detroit Pistons for five seasons, resigning at the end of last season to take a role in the team’s front office.
But even though he’s a little out of the public eye these days, Casey had plenty to say about his time in Toronto in a radio interview with Sportsnet. The raptor show.
One of the topics Casey discussed with co-hosts William Lou and JD Bunkis was how exactly Kyle Lowry built his reputation as arguably the greatest player in franchise history.
For Casey, it started during the 2012-13 season, Lowry’s first in Toronto, where the then-26-year-old point guard spent most of the first half of the season fighting for playing time. play with Jose Calderon for the team’s starting position.
Through 44 games that season, Lowry played in 31 games, winning only 16. But in mid-January, Lowry finally landed the full-time starting role, and he won’t come off the bench again until the 2022 season. -23 while with the Miami Heat.
“Jose is one of the nicest human beings you could ever be around…and I felt sorry for Jose,” Casey said. “Kyle would come on a mission every day to practice and kick Jose’s butt…Kyle was on a mission to prove that ‘hey, I’m better than Jose Calderon,’ which turned out to be the case, and the rest belongs to history.”
From 2014-15 to 2019-20, Lowry appeared in the All-Star Game every season with Toronto, and he remains the only player in franchise history to have six All-Star Game selections while with the team.
But while it took Lowry a little time to gain the trust of his first Raptors coach, it appears the two are now on good terms.
“I love Kyle. We text all the time now and I love him to death,” Casey added.
The full episode is available below, with Casey’s comments starting around the 50-minute mark.
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