Kawhi Leonard walked into Raptors media day and shut the door on the conversation everybody expected to ask about. He made it plain from the start: he was not going to spend his first day back in Toronto talking about the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers.
Before the questions started, Leonard told reporters exactly where he wanted the focus to stay.
“Hey, everyone. Thanks for coming.
I know I’m excited to be here. I know why some of you guys came.
You want to hear about the investigation, but talking with the NBA and the PA, I think the best decision is to move forward and focus on my time being a Toronto Raptor.”
He added that the issue had already taken over a big chunk of his offseason.
“I already was a distraction for the past 70 days and wasn’t able to meet my teammates, do any of that mini-camp stuff with them. So moving forward, I just want to talk about the Toronto Raptors today.
They released a statement that you can go back to and look at. Like I said, I just want to focus on basketball again and being a Toronto Raptor.”
Then he closed his opening remarks with a simple message about where his head is at.
“Thank you guys for coming. Like I said, I’m excited to play and be in the city.”
Leonard said the matter has already pulled him away from the usual start to a new season, including time he should have been spending with teammates and at mini-camp. He pointed reporters back to an earlier statement for anything related to the investigation and refused to go any further.
That boundary came on the same day he was introduced in a very different basketball chapter. Leonard was traded back to the Raptors earlier this month, ending his latest run with the Clippers. Toronto sent Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks, a first-round pick swap, and two second-round picks to Los Angeles in the deal.
Not long after that, Leonard agreed to a two-year, $115 million extension that includes a player option for the 2028-29 season.
He was willing to talk, though, about why Toronto feels right to him on the court.
“Every year’s a learning lesson. You know, obviously, I mean, you talk about basketball or the last year.
You know. We weren’t too competitive last year, but I guess last year me learning that is I need pressure or I need like a winning situation.
I wanna win, I wanna try and win. But I’m not forcing or pushing for that, whatever.”
Those words offered a window into how he sees the end of his time with the Clippers and what he wants now. Leonard said he wants to be in a place where winning matters and competition is at a high level, and he believes Toronto can give him that.
This is, of course, a familiar city for him. His first stint with the Raptors lasted only one season, but it ended with the biggest possible payoff: the 2019 championship and Finals MVP honors.
Seven years later, Leonard is back in Toronto with a very different backdrop. The questions about the investigation aren’t going away anytime soon, but on this day he drew a line. For Leonard, the second Raptors chapter starts with basketball.
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The appeal is obvious, but so are the tradeoffs. Putting those two together raises questions about spacing and defensive matchups, and it also puts a premium on managing Murray-Boyles carefully after the injury issues he dealt with last season. For the Raptors, the challenge is finding a way to keep the frontcourt functional without asking one player to carry too much of the load. [Read more 🡒]