Before Goran Dragic was a Miami Heat Lifer dawning the “7” in South Beach, being a provocateur and ambassador of Culture, and best friends and/or “Bratje” with Jimmy Butler, he played somewhere else. Follow along here.
Before Kyle Lowry was the leader of the Toronto Raptors, winning titles for the North, and on his way to becoming the greatest Toronto Raptor of all time, he, too, was somewhere else. What does this all have in common?
Well besides the fact that their collective destinies have once again crossed, with Lowry coming into Miami as Dragic leaves (though theres a chance The Dragon finishes in Miami and we sure hope so), they were once teammates for a few years. For two seasons, at least, they shared a locker room as members of the Houston Rockets.
So and with that, the following should make total sense. It comes via the Twitter account Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
The Miami Heat and fans will always cherish and respect Goran Dragic for his time here. That same respect is present between he and Kyle Lowry, apparently.
"Of calling Dragic to ask for No. 7 with the Heat, Lowry said today: “I just feel what he did here for this organization, and for me it’s just calling a friend and saying, ‘Listen, no disrespect.If that’s cool with you. No other number means anything to me but seven.'”"
First off, the thing you notice immediately is the verbiage and wording of the statement from the Miami Heat’s newest point guard and let’s be honest, soon to be Lifer inductee, kind of. When talking about Dragic and making the call, Lowry said it was as simple as “calling a friend”.
Man, what a pair of guys. While one had to go for the other to come, it’s entirely plausible to see them being able to coexist, if the opportunity ever presented itself again.
On the issue of the jerseys though, it seems that outside sources always made it a much larger issue than it really every was for those that are actually inside of the scenario. If he was going to be honored after his career, it would have always been a Miami Heat-specific thing, as he isn’t a Hall Of Fame Player.
However, they would do that regardless, whether someone wore his jersey number again or not. However and with all that being said, it’s good to see that there was some sort of mutual respect, admiration, and agreement made between the actual two guys involved on the subject.
That’s the Miami Heat Way of getting things done. Directly and straight forward.