Kyle Lowry gets real on why he had an underwhelming season as a member of the Miami Heat.
He noted that it was “continuity” and not “conditioning” that bothered him in his first stint around South Beach, further citing the unavailability that he had to dwell in order to attend to a family matter.
“I’m still dealing with it,” Lowry said of the family issue, per team insider Ira Winderman. “It’s a situation when it’s better, I’ll talk about it more. But it’s definitely something that kind of derailed my whole season and kept me derailed for a long time. Still, to this day, it’s still something I deal with every single day. I actually got a phone call just now about it.”
“It’s life,” Lowry added. “Life happens and you just have to continue to get better and focus on the things you can control and try to help as best you can.
“Because at the end of the day, I can’t do this or that. All I can do is go to people who can help me and hopefully I can help them and we can kind of work together and collaborate.”
During the 2021-2022 exit interview of Miami, franchise boss man Pat Riley declared that Lowry has to have a “world-class shape” for next year, stating that the veteran guard had real conditioning issues in his debut season with the Heat which completely disturbed his capabilities.
Amid weight and absence issues, Lowry still posted a huge role for the club’s first-seed finish atop of Eastern Conference, averaging 13.4 points, 7.5 assists, and 4.5 boards in 63 games.
But they came up short of reaching the league’s biggest stage against the Boston Celtics in the nail-biting seventh game. Within mind of Lowry, it was still a notable year despite the close failure.
“We had a great year. We were one shot from the [NBA] Finals,” he said, referencing Jimmy Butler’s missed three-point attempt in the final seconds of Game 7.
Still, Lowry’s mindset remains the same with regard to his personal matter, but he looks forward that things will be good at the end of the day.
“You have to be strong-minded and you have to be able to say, ‘OK, this is one thing but when I’m able to get out here and I’m able to do this other thing, let me turn it off a little bit.’
“But it’s very tough, because as soon as you’re done [with] the activity or whatever you’re doing to take your mind from the thing, then it’s right back to it.”
