The Reinvention of Kawhi Leonard
How Kawhi Leonard simultaneously rebuilt his brand and his reputation — while making his case as the NBA’s best player
THE MOMENT WAS almost too good to be true, the anticipation of the exhilaration of a lifetime so clear.
Prancing around mid-court, Kawhi Leonard put his 7′ 3″ wingspan to good use, yelling in celebration with his arms held high as Kyle Lowry, his fellow co-star, joined him. Jurassic Park in Toronto, Ontario was illuminated as it seemed as though Leonard’s yell of triumph had reverberated throughout the entire country of Canada that night. Exchanging hugs with fellow teammates and opposition alike, Leonard went over to the stage, where Adam Silver and Bill Russell were waiting to greet him.
Moments earlier, after a drawn-out ending that featured a Danny Green turnover, a missed go-ahead three-pointer by Curry, and two free throws by Leonard, the game was finally over, a 114–110 victory for the Raptors. And, more importantly, Canada was home to an NBA champion.
Leonard would go on to win Finals MVP, capping off one of the most impressive playoff runs in recent memory — a playoff run in which Leonard defeated the star-studded Philadelphia 76ers, the Milwaukee Bucks with league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, and finally, the Golden State Warriors, the league’s most singularly dominant team in history over the past two seasons.
He made history, as his fourteen 30 point games throughout the playoffs was a number matched only by NBA legends Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant. He also joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James as the only players who have ever won the Finals MVP with multiple teams.
But the trials and tribulations that Leonard endured to reach this point — the pinnacle of his profession, the apex of team success — were just as fascinating as his triumphs on the world’s biggest stage.
Because to understand why Leonard’s successes this season were so meaningful, why his performances were so magical, it is imperative to look back into the recent past, when masses of people questioned everything about Kawhi Leonard, the NBA’s silent assassin.
THE BOOS REVERBERATED throughout the AT&T Center.
Every time Kawhi Leonard touched the ball, the capacity crowd of 18,581 people would stand, yelling vitriolic words and booing loudly. When the Spurs showed a tribute video to Leonard and his Raptor teammate, Danny Green, it was Green, the former 3&D role player that was treated like a former Finals MVP, while Leonard continued to be booed.
And when he went to the free-throw line to take two free throws, chants of “traitor” spread throughout the arena, marking the lowest point of the slander on Leonard’s name after a tumultuous exit with the Spurs.
But things weren’t supposed to be this way.
Leonard was supposed to be the heir apparent, the leader born out of the Spurs’ vaunted player development program that transformed him from an athletic defender to a two-way, 3&D star, to one of the NBA’s five best players.
But his triumphs in San Antonio, including multiple Defensive Player of the Year awards and a Finals MVP trophy, were ultimately marred by his exit, which was filled with deceit, slander, and vitriol.
And for whatever reason, be it the Spurs’ reputation and aura of professionalism, people around the league were quick to scrutinize Leonard and side with the Spurs.
Sensationalized headlines dominated the media coverage of the Spurs, as it became more difficult to separate truth from reality with Leonard’s situation. The name “Uncle Dennis” became among the most talked about names in the basketball world, as everyone was trying to understand who was directing the actions of the NBA’s most quiet superstar. And slowly but surely, Leonard was being pushed out of the organization, with his distance from the team fracturing a formerly united locker room.
The murals of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili, and Tony Parker passing the torch to Leonard on various walls around the Alamo City were being overtaken by the negative, virulent picture of Leonard that the media was painting.
And, to make matters worse, Leonard’s coach, the legendary Gregg Popovich, and former star Tony Parker both reiterated a common sentiment around the league: Parker’s injury was worse, yet he recovered faster than Leonard, so Leonard was trying to distance himself from the Spurs organization.
By the time Popovich sat down with Leonard to try and convince him to stay one last time, the damage was already finished, the tenuous relationship too fractured to repair. The Spurs dealt Leonard and Green for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, and first-round pick to the Raptors on July 18
Leonard went to Toronto as damaged goods, with his name being tarnished and people everywhere calling him “selfish” and “heartless.”
Most importantly, his mysterious quadriceps injury that caused all of this turmoil was now an issue that the Raptors needed to solve, as they had traded their franchise savior in DeRozan for him, who was on an expiring contract, with his impending free agency looming over the entire franchise.
IF THERE WAS a term that defined the NBA regular season, it was “load management.” While it isn’t new as a concept in the league, 2018 was the first season in which systematic rest and recuperation had a name.
For Leonard and the Raptors, load management was the single most important aspect to the regular season.
Much attention was made to the fact that Leonard only played 60 games — and in the 22 games the Raptors played without Leonard, they infamously won 17 games. He refrained from playing back-to-back games, as well as many games in which the NBA schedule threatened to push Leonard to the brink of injury. Overall, while working with team doctors and specialists, Leonard worked to rehabilitate the quadriceps injury that was seemingly threatening his career.
On the court, however, Leonard reinvented himself, as well.
Unlike in San Antonio, where he was the primary on-ball defender at all times against opposing superstars, chasing players around the court and racking up steals and blocks, Leonard took a more conservative approach on defense. With younger, more energetic athletes like Pascal Siakam and O.G. Anunoby, Leonard didn’t need to overly exert himself on defense, anyways.
On offense, Leonard picked his spots more than ever, decisively slowing the game down to attack purposefully, rather than freely. It was clear that he had fully rounded out his offensive skillset: post-ups, drives, fadeaways, off-the-dribble threes, and pull-up jump-shots all became integral to Leonard’s offensive repertoire as he had the best offensive season of his career.
All in all, Leonard had an MVP-level campaign, posting averages of 26.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in a season that was defined by his dominance as much as his load management.
If anything, the load management was clarifying. It was proof that Leonard’s injury troubles were very real, and the key to keeping him fresh was managing his load.
Ironically, the San Antonio Spurs were at the forefront of resting players, yet, with Leonard, they stubbornly insisted he was healthy, refusing to continually manage his physical status.
Not to be lost in the moral and physiological debate surrounding Leonard’s season, however, were the incredible moments during the regular season in which he made his case as the NBA’s best player.
Whether it be his 31 points and 10 rebounds in just his second game as a Raptor, his 37–8–3 stat-line to outduel Kevin Durant, a career-high 45 points vs. the Jazz, or 38 points and a game-winner against the Trail Blazers, Leonard’s body of work suggested just how special he was — and foreshadowed events to come.
Meanwhile, as Leonard rehabilitated his quadriceps on the court, he was also rehabilitating his image off the court.
“I’M A FUN guy,” muttered Leonard, wearing a black arm sleeve and his new Raptors threads, into the microphone, before laughing hilariously with his new General Manager, Masai Ujiri.
He was prompted to describe himself by a reporter, a seemingly strange question, yet a question that was extremely fitting given his reserved personality and mysterious arrival in Toronto.
And though fans wouldn’t realize it yet, the laughing and smiling of Leonard in his first moments as a Toronto Raptor would set a precedent for the rest of the year — and would serve as a reprieve to the criticism he suffered due to his messy departure from San Antonio.
Slowly but surely, Leonard was rebuilding his brand.
Lost in the variety of headlines during the offseason of 2018 was Leonard turning down a 4 year, $22 million extension with Jordan Brand. Like his previous tenure with the Spurs, he was expected to stay at Jordan, but this was a new time, a new, reinvented Leonard.
For years, while with Jordan Brand, Leonard never fully expressed himself, sticking to the drab San Antonio colors of white, black, and grey. The most progress Leonard had with Jordan was a personal logo — a claw made out of his initials, K and L. The furthest Nike and Jordan went to promote Leonard? A boring “Like Mike” campaign which received little attention and was far less popular than the Spurs partnership with H-E-B in television commercials.
Leonard surprised many with his decision to sign with New Balance, a brand whose basketball department was, at best, lacking, but should we have been surprised? This was Kawhi Leonard after all, the player who was singularly talented enough to go head to head with LeBron James and Kevin Durant, and one of the few players to go against the grain by not forming a superstar duo or trio.
New Balance, like Leonard, was somewhat mysterious, hesitantly releasing shoes and merchandise.
But as his stock soared in the playoffs, so did New Balance, and very quickly, Leonard’s OMN1 sneakers sold out. T-Shirts rolled in featuring Leonard’s favorite catchphrase — the iconic “Board Man Gets Paid” phrase that he would say to mock his opponents while still an amateur — and the equally famous “Fun Guy” moniker that came from Leonard’s first press conference with the Raptors.
The genius in embracing the somewhat misfit personality of Leonard — his quietness, his lack of a social media presence — is that it repaired the stained reputation that he had after leaving San Antonio.
The contrast between the hatred and bitter vitriol people felt towards Leonard, and the wholesome, admiration they felt for the man nicknamed “Fun Guy” and “Board Man” was striking. Like LeBron James and Stephen Curry before him, Leonard was undergoing a metamorphosis, going from one of the NBA’s most hated players to among its most liked.
While rebuilding a personal brand was important to Leonard, however, there were more important matters at hand in the NBA Playoffs.
A FRUSTRATED LEONARD and his teammates walked off the court in Scotiabank Arena, where a masses of Raptors fans were heading for the exits, saddened by the turn of events. Once again, the Raptors had lost a Game 1 at home, and once again, they were losing to a team they were favored to beat.
ESPN commentator Ryan Ruocco gloomily added, “[Toronto hopes] this isn’t the beginning of Déjà vu all of over again.”
This wouldn’t be the last of the Raptors’ struggles. The cycle of disappointment and team struggles that had consistently plagued the Raptors remained, even as they overhauled their roster.
But Leonard, unlike DeRozan before him, was ready to battle through adversity.
So even when the Raptors were annihilated by Philadelphia in Game 3 of the second round, or when the Bucks took a dominant 2–0 lead in the Conference Finals, or when the Warriors stunned Toronto by winning a decisive Game 5 on the road, Leonard never wavered.
In fact, he thrived under the pressure.
On the road, down 2–1 against a hungry 76ers squad and a hostile Philly crowd, Leonard put up 39 points and 14 rebounds while hitting a decisive three-pointer to give the Raptors a lead they would never relinquish, and he would go on to top the Sixers with an all-time great game-winning fadeaway at the buzzer — a shot that will live on to define his career.
Facing 3–0 and 3–2 deficits against the Bucks, Leonard put up a 36–9–5 stat-line in Game 3, before putting up points and a playoff-high of 9 assists in Game 5. He would close out the series by adding 27 points and 17 rebounds, upsetting the Bucks and defeating the odds, once again.
And in the Finals, with the chance to go up 3–1 on the Warriors, Leonard dominated in the early third quarter of Game 4 in Oakland, giving the Raptors full control of the series while finishing with 36 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 steals.
With the aid of teammates Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, and Fred VanVleet, the Raptors narrowly defeated the Warriors in Game 6 of the Finals, capping off an incredible playoff run that saw them overcome adversity at every turn.
Leonard averaged 30.5 points and 9.1 rebounds during the playoffs, while also averaging over 39 minutes a game — minutes that were crucial to the Raptors’ championship.
All of the Raptors’ success traced back to Leonard, the Finals MVP, who had to adapt throughout the season to being the unquestioned leader of a contending team — which he fulfilled to such a level that he received comparisons to Michael Jordan throughout the playoffs.
SCOTIABANK ARENA WAS completely dark. The crowd went silent, not knowing what to anticipate. The Raptors’ play-by-play announcer, Matt Devlin, took the microphone.
“Tied at 90 …” he would utter, as Raptors fans began to understand the unique tribute. Then, Greg Anthony of TNT’s voice began to play, as memories of Leonard’s buzzer-beater became imminent inside the arena.
Devlin’s iconic “For the win…” echoed as a spotlight was placed on the very rim which Leonard hit the so-called “Shot Heard Around the World.” Time seemed to slow down as the arena went silent, replicating the same feeling Raptors’ fans felt when Leonard’s shot bounced on the rim seemingly an innumerable amount of times.
And then, it happened.
The iconic screams and yells of commentators and fans alike were reproduced, creating a stunningly realistic impression of that immortalized moment in Canadian sports history.
The tribute video the Raptors’ prepared for Leonard was incredible, not just for its stunning visuals and incredible sound effects, but also because it captured the growth Leonard had in his time in Canada, becoming a revered leader and popular superstar in just one season.
Leonard did leave Toronto after his first and only season with the Raptors, but he left a changed man. This wasn’t the same Leonard fans knew when he demanded a trade from the Spurs. No, this was a player at the peak of his powers, a superstar who was single-handedly reviving a brand, and now one of the most iconic figures in an entire country’s sporting history.
Now in a place of his choosing, with a superstar running mate in Paul George whom he recruited, Leonard is set for success, primed to fulfill the unfinished promise and potential he left behind years ago in San Antonio.
And as for the haters and critics who were quick to dismiss Leonard as selfish, fractious, and cocky? Leonard responded, in a way only he could respond.
Taking center-stage at the Raptors’ championship parade, he grabbed the microphone and re-created his now-infamous laugh.
“Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.”
Thanks for reading and making 2019 such an amazing year. A huge project is coming out soon. Happy Holidays
First Image: Link
All stats via Basketball Reference
