PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Lowry, in the manner that has guided many of his 19 NBA seasons, started Sunday with a joke and then got to the heart of matters quickly.
On the subject of his own career, it took more to draw him out. But after jokingly calling 2024-25, “one of the seasons that you really don’t want to remember” and then lauding the young players he’s mentored while sidelined by a hip injury, Lowry declared he’d like one more NBA season.
At age 39, off 35 games played and his fewest minutes since he was a rookie logging 10 games for the 2006-07 Memphis Grizzlies, Lowry would rather not head off into retirement with so forgettable a season.
“I think being a part of this season showed you I want to at least go out winning,” Lowry said after a 122-102 loss to Chicago. “And today, we’ve known we were not going to make the playoffs, but I think I walked into the building today and I was a little bit sad because we all thought that we would be playing a little bit longer, and we thought they had a good team on paper. But you’ve still got to put it down on the floor. So for me, I do want to play one more year and at a level where I can compete and play and help a team.”
Lowry’s value was relegated to the intangibles category most of the year. He played 35 games, starting 12. He averaged 3.9 points, 2.7 assists and 1.9 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per contest.
Considering that he started 55 games last year, including 20 of 23 as a 76er after arriving on Feb. 13 via a waiver buyout, it was a big reduction in workload. (He played just 659 minutes this year, after 653 as a 76er last year, plus more than 1,000 with Miami.)
It’s not the season the six-time All-Star from Cardinal Dougherty High School and Villanova would like to cap his career with.
Much of it was due to a chronic hip injury that never eased. Lowry played the first 13 games of the season, then managed more than three consecutive games only two more times the rest of the way. He’s played just twice since Feb. 9.
Lowry still impacted the team. From February on, a stretch in which the 76ers finished 5-31 to improve their draft hopes, a ton of young players got minutes. Most cited Lowry as one of their primary aides in acclimating to the NBA. That relative abundance – with Tyrese Maxey, Quentin Grimes and Jared McCain, next year’s point guard minutes seem well stocked – may ironically imperil Lowry’s chances of a meaningful role in 2026. But helping young guys has been a source of joy.
“The only thing is, they call me ancient. So that’s the only problem I have with it,” Lowry jabbed. “But that’s what I’m here for. As a competitor, of course, I want to be on the floor and playing and competing. But as an elder statesman in this league, you get enjoyment out of watching these kids grow because I was once in their shoes and I’ve been through the things that they’ve been through.”
If Lowry is going to play a 20th season, he’d like to be in Philadelphia. His relationship with Nick Nurse, dating from their Toronto championship days, is well-documented. He’s grown close to Maxey as a mentee.
A lot has to happen for the pieces to fit. But Lowry has proven amenable in the past. For a last chance at a more appropriate ending, he’s likely to be so again.
“I still want to play one more year,” he said. “And hopefully it’s here.”
