Lowry has referred to the 39-year-old Cavaliers head coach as a father figure. When questioned about the reference, Lue explained that virtually the day Lowry was drafted into the NBA in 2006, eight years into Lue's playing career, he took Lowry under his wing. It was a natural fit since the two shared the same agent.
"It was crazy, when he got drafted, when [Lowry] first came in, he said that he 'wanted to be like Tyronn Lue,"' said Lue, who played 11 years in the NBA for seven different teams. "He wanted to compare himself to me. I was like, 'Well, you can be much better than me.' I was just a role player.
"But when he first came in from Villanova, that's what he said, and it caught my attention, from that day forward, we've always had a great relationship/