TORONTO — This was always the plan. It just took time for it to take shape and for it to become obvious as the only sensible endpoint to Kyle Lowry’s one-of-a-kind career arc with the Toronto Raptors.

Lowry first floated his intentions before the trade deadline during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 NBA season, when it appeared the then-Raptors point guard would be traded to a contender as the team he led to a 2019 championship pivoted to rebuild during the "Tampa Tank" season.

He was eventually signed and traded to the Miami Heat before the 2021-22 season, his second-last stop before ending his playing career in his hometown of Philadelphia. But, by then, it was clear what his forever NBA home was going to be. 

“I’ll say this, I will retire as a Toronto Raptor, one-day contract, whatever happens,” Lowry said in March 2021, back when post-game media availabilities were conducted on video conference calls and the Raptors played their entire season on the road due to border restrictions imposed as a response to the pandemic. “The connection we have, it’s always been a home to me. It’s where I’ve become who I’ve become.”

Becoming who he has become was a process. Being a franchise icon, NBA champion and six-time all-star — all achieved with the Raptors — did not seem in the cards for most of the first half of his remarkable 20-year career, and certainly not in his early days in Toronto.

The Raptors were his third NBA team when he was acquired in the summer of 2012 in a trade made by then-general manager Bryan Colangelo, who sent the Houston Rockets a first-round pick and Gary Forbes. 

His reputation preceded him as a talented but hard-headed guard who had fallen out with then-Rockets head coach Kevin McHale. His first season in Toronto didn’t always go all that smoothly either, as Lowry chafed at occasionally having to come off the bench behind Jose Calderon while playing for then-Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. 

Raptor for life? His iconic No. 7 hanging from the rafters at Scotiabank Arena? Lowry didn’t see it. Not then. 

“When I was traded to Toronto, I figured I’d do my thing and show my talents, but in two years I would become a free agent and I’d be gone,” the six-time all-star wrote in a Players' Tribune article in........

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