Kyle Lowry tracks down shoeless Raptors fan to deliver new pair of kicks
Raptors fan Alan Vale traveled to the Windy City on New Years Eve with his girlfriend to see Toronto take down the Chicago Bulls, 85-79.
Not a bad way to finish 2013, especially when point guard Kyle Lowry decided to toss his shoes to Vale (in the Raps jersey) in the lower bowl seats he'd splurged on for the big night.
But that's not the happy ending (nor is it the end) because a hooded shoe sniper came out of nowhere and caught the kicks in mid-air before fleeing the scene.
Cue: sad Alan.
The video (posted by Slang Yung) garnered over 300,000 views since it was posted on New Year's Eve.
Not surprisingly, social media led Lowry to the fan's tale, and he invited Vale to attend Monday's home game against the Bucks.
According to the Raptors' official blog:
Vale, along with his friend Francis, was invited to take in pregame warmups courtside on Monday. He was then taken to the players lounge for what he thought was an interview about his story, only to have Lowry arrive to personally delivered a pair of his shoes.
“Blown away,” was how Vale described his response to Lowry’s gesture. “We’re in the middle of an interview and then all of a sudden, there’s the starting point guard for the Toronto Raptors.
“I was not expecting that. Absolutely not. I was pretty blown away just to be sitting courtside and watching the shootaround. This is definitely one of the highlights of my being a Raptors fan.”
[Courtesy: Toronto Raptors, h/t SLAM for sharing]