The newly-formed tandem of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are looking forward to building their own legacy with the L.A. Clippers and bring the fight to a Los Angeles Lakers team that has dominated the fan base in the city since moving from Minneapolis. George made his way to L.A. after the Thunder traded his for five first-round picks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with Leonard soon stamping his commitment to join him as a free agent. Both two-way stars are aware of what this partnership means for the franchise:

“It’s a great chance and opportunity for us to start anew, you know, a legacy here in L.A.,” George told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. “The Clippers haven’t been to the Promised Land yet and that’s something that we can bring to a different part of L.A. I think that’s attractive. Again, we are playing at home, I was a Clippers fan growing up, so this hits differently for me. I get a chance to do something that I dreamed of as a kid playing in the front yard. This is just a different opportunity that I don’t think anybody wants to pass up in their career.”

Leonard echoed George's sentiment on that perspective.

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“Our focus is on building our own legacy, building the Clippers’ legacy. That’s how the Lakers started,” he said. “Who won the first championship with the Lakers? That’s how we’re going to start our movement. We’re going to go in and obviously have a goal set of winning a championship, and if we can get one, then that’s going to start the changing process. But you can’t change one championship against 16 or a brand. There are bigger brands. I’ve been out there. The Knicks are still a big brand, but they haven’t won any games. They’re still going to overshadow the [Brooklyn] Nets, too. So it’s just about winning at this point. The fan base is going to change over if we win and that’s the goal. We’ve got to win and everything else is going to take care of itself.”

Leonard was sure-handed when saying in a purely basketball standpoint, the Clippers have been a better team than the Lakers — a statement that is true in its essence, but so simplistic that it drew an ovation from the media present for his introduction.

The Klaw is not a man of many words, but he and George are two men on a mission — and they now have the potential to elevate this franchise much higher than Lob City ever did in terms of hardware.