The 5 Stages of Kyle Lowry-Leaving-The-Raptors Grief

The 5 Stages of Kyle Lowry-Leaving-The-Raptors Grief

By Chelsea Leite

After nine glorious seasons and a championship run for the ages, Kyle Lowry left the Toronto Raptors this summer and signed a deal with the Miami Heat. 

As a Raptors fan, you probably felt a lot of things - sadness, pride, jealousy - but us basketball fans north of the border just want to let the rest of you in on how devastating this loss is to us. 

I felt more emotions that day than I did when my high school boyfriend dumped me right before Prom…

...Which like duh, it’s Kyle Lowry. 

Anyways, here are the 5 Stages of Grief we, Raptors fans, experienced this free agency: 

Denial 

For a while, we were sure he was staying. I mean, why not retire in glory with the team that brought you your first championship? Leading up to the actual trade, every rumor tweet was met with a loud “NO, IT’S NOT HAPPENING. HE IS STAYING.” Raptors fans were quite annoying about it actually and in hindsight, I apol-- NO I DON’T, I HAD HOPE UNTIL THE VERY END. 

Anger

How could this happen? I mean, the Raptors are only a competent center and a healthy Pascal Siakam and maybe 1 or 2 more decent shooters away from being a REAL CONTENDER! How could Kyle leave us to go to a team that has made it to an NBA final in the past 12 months and has all of the pieces together RIGHT NOW? The audacity - and all we got back for it was a young center and a dude who doesn’t even want to be here? RUDE. 

Bargaining

Well, it can’t be that bad right? We could make a couple of trades - call the Mavs! Call the Kings! Masai, boot up that Blackberry and MAKE SOMETHING of this loss! We have Fred and Pascal and OG and Scottie and WE ARE MAKING AT RUN AT THIS THING! 

Depression

Look, Media Day was hard for everyone. The first look of Kyle in the Heat’s weirdly bland uniforms was when it became reality and the emotions started flooding in. We played Adele’s “Someone Like You” and cried into our phones at the cute videos of Kyle, Jimmy, and Bam. 

Nevermind, Kyle, I’ll find someone like you. I wish nothing but the best for you, but don’t forget me, I beg… 

Acceptance 

I mean, he wasn’t going to stay forever. Now he has a real chance at another championship this season. It will always hurt, but we understand. 

Go get your ring Kyle, we love you. 

Thank you for everything. 

**starts Someone Like You over again**