Kyle Lowry really annoyed by one Raptors rumor

Kyle Lowry has made it clear he hopes to retire as a Toronto Raptor, but his future with the organization still remains up in the air.

That’s in part due to the swirling rumors around the six-time All-Star and other outside factors to take into consideration. He recently sold his house in Toronto, and he hasn’t exactly said he wants to return to the team when his contract — which he extended in 2019 for one year and $30.5 million — expires this summer and he becomes a free agent.

But he did address a report that he had told people he was leaving the Raptors, something he said wasn’t true.

“I don’t really get into that stuff, and it doesn’t bother me because rumors are rumors and they will always be,” Lowry told reporters Wednesday night, ahead of the second half of their NBA season in Tampa, Florida. “But when something is said that doesn’t verbally come from me and I haven’t said anything, that’s when it gets to the point of, ‘Did you have me on record saying that? I want to know who the source is, because the source is me.’

“That stuff is where you kind of defend yourself. I don’t really care about it. It’s just to defend myself for a quick second.”

The Ringer’s Ryen Russillo recently went on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” and said that Lowry, whose name keeps popping up as a potential trade target for teams ahead of the March 25 deadline, has been telling people that he’s out of Toronto.

“The word on that is that Lowry has been telling everybody for a month that he’s getting traded, which is interesting that he’s already like ‘yeah, I’m out of here,’ ” Russillo said. “So I don’t know if that’s him saying it, I don’t know if that’s some understanding that he has with the front office, I don’t know that part of it but whenever you ask about Lowry, he thinks he’s leaving. I think they should trade him, by the way.”

With the Raptors sitting two games under .500, Lowry, who is averaging 18 points and seven assists this season, could be the biggest player available on the market.

But the 34-year-old continues to be non-committal.

“For me, personally, whatever happens, we’ll see,” he said. “I don’t know. We don’t know. Like, honestly, I don’t know. If I could tell you, if I could look at a crystal ball, I would tell you, but I don’t know what the crystal ball says. I don’t what is going to happen. I don’t know what they’re thinking, I’m thinking. We’ll just kind of get to that point and figure it out from there.”