It happens before every home game — the special meeting by the Raptors bench.

Kyle Lowry and his three-year-old son, Karter, informing each other about their day.

“I like to see him before a game,” said the Raptors star point guard.

“It makes me whole. He doesn’t watch the game out there. He watches in the back. For me, I tell him I love him. He tells me good luck. We have a talk. You’ve got a good thing like that going. I give him a kiss. You have that in your life, what have you got to be mad about? You go out there and do your job with ease.

“For your pride and joy. Makes my job a lot easier. I don’t see him enough. He gets up, goes to school. I don’t want to wait all day to see my son again. I miss him. Now it’s something we can do together. He wants to see me before games, I want to see him. It’s my pride. It’s who I play for.”

What have I got to be mad about? Lowry repeats that question several times as we sit in the players’ lounge at the Air Canada Centre for a rare one-on-one interview. Explaining how anger has been so much a part of his life. He hasn’t always understood it, where it came from, why it was him. He understands it damaged him enough that he can now separate the then from the now.

He opens up in a way he doesn’t often, upon learning he is the 11th winner of the George Gross Award as Toronto Sun Sportsman of the Year, seeing Roy Halladay’s name on the list of winners before him: That one caught him more than any other.

“I’m from North Philly,” he said with a smile. Halladay means something in North Philly.

But the anger he talks about consuming him is in the past, and while he may play basketball with a chip on his shoulder, the little guy in a big man’s game, his life has never felt more complete, more certain, more controlled.

Marriage did that to him. But fatherhood — that changed everything. “He’s done more for me than I’ve done for him,” he said of his son. “He’s a bigger influence on my life. It’s made me more of a man. It’s made me more of a grown-up. It’s made me more mature. It’s made me understand that life is bigger than just basketball and being mad about things. I’ve spent a lot of my life being mad. I’m never mad (anymore). Off the court, I’m never mad. On the court, that’s a different story.

“I don’t know why I was like I was. I was always mad. Things don’t always go your way. You make mistakes. You make them out to be bigger than they are. You build them up. At the end of the day, you’re mad, then you’re mad at yourself. It’s no way to be.

“The last two years have been a very peaceful, very happy time. I’ve never been more stable. I’ve never been more understanding.”

And the content Kyle Lowry never saw any of this coming.

A day after the Raptors failed to sign Steve Nash as a free agent, Bryan Colangelo brought Lowry in from Houston in a trade for a first-round pick and somebody named Gary Forbes. Lowry remembers his emotion on that day.

“Two and done and I’m going home,” he said.

He wanted nothing to do with the Raptors.

“I figured two years and I’d be a free agent and go somewhere else. This wasn’t where I wanted to be. I tell people that all the time. You can’t predict your future. You have to live it by the day.

“Two years ago, I would not have envisioned sitting here and talking to you about an award Roy Halladay won, but I’m happy I am. Things have worked out perfectly. I love the city. I love the organization. I love being here. I love where I’m at. It’s interesting how things happen.

“Our season last year was a helluva story. I was traded (to New York). Essentially, I was gone. My best friend (Rudy Gay) got traded. It was all messed up.”

From that came the most memorable Raptors season in years — this helluva story, a budding, growing electric fan base, a last-shot chance to win a playoff series, a team now dominating the Eastern Conference standings, talk of Lowry as an all-star (he’s never been one before), an MVP candidate (he’s never been mentioned before), a $48-million contract, and now this, a new beginning for Lowry in his ninth NBA season — a new place for him in the star-driven NBA.

How would he react post-contract? That’s always a question for any athlete. Especially one with potholes on his resume.

Some take the money and run. He’s taken the money and run the offence.

“I’m motivated,” said Lowry. “I’m more motivated than I’ve ever been. It wasn’t about getting a contract. I was going to get that. It’s about me fulfilling my contract, doing my duties. It’s about winning. It’s about working harder. They gave me the money for a reason. It’s about being a professional.

“I have a lot more to give. For me, it’s not just about right now. It’s about next season and the season after that. It’s about the future. I don’t satisfy easily. There’s a long way to go.”

He doesn’t view himself as a star. When he talks about the stars of the NBA, he talks of them with a certain reverence. He mentions Anthony Davis and LeBron James. He mentions Chris Paul and Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and Marc Gasol and Dwyane Wade and Blake Griffin.

“Those are MVP-type players,” he said. “The beauty of the NBA is everybody has their own special talent. None of those two players are the same. Everybody had that unique thing about them. In this league, you have to find your unique talent.

“I’m not one of them.”

But he may be underselling himself. With the Raptors’ only all-star, DeMar DeRozan, out of the lineup, Lowry has become one of them. In the first four games without DeRozan, Lowry scored 29, 27, 39 and 22 points, which are hardly point-guard numbers. He then had 13 assists, followed by 14 assists, and in the past five games, has had his time reduced because of relatively easy wins for the Raptors. An invitation to this season’s all-star game will represent another new start. While settled, Lowry certainly has gotten used to change, not just in himself, but with those around him.

“It’s extremely crazy what’s gone on,” he said. “I lost my boy in Rudy, but I was gaining a boy in DeMar. It’s funny how basketball brings guys together that would never be friends. This kid’s from Compton, Calif. I’m from North Philadelphia. We’re 3,000 miles apart and we’re very similar and very close.

“When you’re young, you don’t really understand what’s going on in your life. You have to go through a process. I’m older now, I’m wiser. I’ve got a family and a wife. I’ve got a team that counts on me every single night. It wasn’t always like that.

“Back then, I was young, sassy, didn’t like to do interviews, wouldn’t sit here and say this, wouldn’t speak out loud, wouldn’t incorporate everybody. Now I know how important it is to have friends, to have people who can say, ‘Let’s go to dinner.’ To have people to talk to. To trust people.

“I’ve got a great back-court mate in DeMar. We talk everyday. Rudy’s my guy, my best friend. But having DeMar here has been great. We’ve taken this friendship to a whole new level.”

Lowry has everything he needs in Toronto: His family. His friends. His team on the rise, along with his career. And his relationship with Masai Ujiri, the general manager who had him traded away, but made him understand what he was capable of being. This isn’t one-and-done for him. This is Year 9 in the NBA for him — and it’s really another beginning.

It’s why he doesn’t consume himself with the last-second shot that never happened against Brooklyn in Game 7. He doesn’t even think about it. There is not much else to do.

“Kobe Bryant missed a game-winning shot last night,” he said. “I’ll tell you one thing: If he gets one tonight or tomorrow, I’ll bet you he’s going to shoot it with the same confidence.

“I have to think the same way. I’ve missed two potential game-winning shots this season. Give me another one. I’m going to take it and I’m going to make it. That’s just the way I am.”

steve.simmons@sunmedia.ca