DeRozan says he and Lowry barely talked their 1st year together

It's become one of the NBA's great bromances, the Toronto Raptors backcourt duo of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. With six All-Star games and two All-NBA nods between them, they've also become fast friends worthy of a comedy team.

Yet, according to DeRozan, the pair didn't talk after becoming teammates in 2012.

"My first year with Kyle, me and Kyle didn't say a word to one another," DeRozan told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. "We didn't speak. We didn't have a conversation, we didn't hang out, we didn't go eat, we didn't sit next to each other, nothing. I didn't have his phone number."

According to DeRozan, the Raptors' sudden turnaround to contention in 2013-14 drew them closer.

"The next year comes, and all the madness happened," he said. "I think that's what brought us together, why we're so close ... was that two weeks of a season (that led) our careers to today, to being multiple all stars, to being Olympians."

It's a reminder how unplanned the most successful period in Raptors franchise history was. DeRozan said Lowry arrived in Toronto with the mindset that he wouldn't be staying long, and added that he himself expected to be traded had a rebuild commenced following Lowry's 2013 trade to the New York Knicks (a deal that was killed by MSG chairman James Dolan).

DeRozan has only called Toronto home in his nine-year NBA career, while the Raps became Lowry's third pro address after arriving via trade in the summer of 2012. It's also worth remembering Lowry was acquired only after Toronto struck out on veteran free agent Steve Nash, who played only 65 more NBA games after that.