Thanks in large part to his outstanding play of late, Toronto Raptors veteran point guard Kyle Lowry has had his recent share of the limelight. Now in his first ever appearance in the NBA Finals — and with a legitimate shot at actually going all the way to bag the coveted trophy — some conflicting reports have emerged pertaining to Lowry's foiled trade to the New York Knicks some six years ago.

With a deal between the Raptors and the Knicks all but finalized, the plug was pulled on the trade at the last minute. According to Frank Isola of The Athletic, it was actually Knicks owner James Dolan who ultimately moved to veto the potential deal at the 13th hour.

According to multiple sources familiar with the negotiations, the trade that would have sent Lowry to the Knicks in December of 2013 was vetoed at the last minute by MSG Chairman James Dolan. At the time the Knicks were prepared to trade several players, including Metta World Peace and Iman Shumpert, plus a 2018 first-round pick to Toronto. The Raptors were mostly interested in the first-round pick but Dolan, having been burned twice in two previous deals with Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri, got cold feet.

However, ESPN's Brian Windhorst's sources have told him otherwise, and in his write-up, he describes how it was actually the Knicks who backed out of the deal because of their hesitation on Lowry brought about by his alleged attitude problem.

Knicks insiders, however, insist that has always been incorrect. Ultimately, the Knicks front office didn't take the trade to Dolan for approval. Some background research on Lowry revealed that he can be difficult to manage — this was absolutely true, as Lowry has admitted, though he also was a future All-Star and locker room leader — that gave them pause.

At this point, we probably won't be able to unequivocally determine what really caused that deal to fall through. However, all's well that ends well, and in this case, this was certainly a blessing in disguise for both Lowry and the Raptors.