Kawhi Leonard Articles - Page 49

Toronto Raptors All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry is confident the Raptors are going to be a good team in 2019-20 even though superstar small forward Kawhi Leonard is gone. Leonard left the Raptors after one season to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency this summer. With Leonard out of the picture, pundits […]

Kawhi Leonard texted Kyle Lowry on July 6 he was leaving the Toronto Raptors and signing with the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency, ending his magical one-year run with the Raptors. Leonard, a California native, signed a three-year, $103.14 million contract with the Clippers. The three-time All-Star and two-time Defensive Player of the Year […]

The Los Angeles Clippers won the Kawhi Leonard sweepstakes, and according to head coach Doc Rivers, they did it by being plain, simple and straightforward. In his interview with Andrew Grief of Los Angeles Times, Rivers said that he went right down to business with Leonard during their free agency recruitment pitch. “All the other […]

The Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard is Canada’s most-Googled athlete for the second straight month, according to Craig Battle in SportsNets and, well, Google. Leonard being at the top of the list is not exactly a surprise given the recency bias of his leadership bringing the Toronto Raptors the first NBA Finals win in league […]

Toronto Raptors power forward Serge Ibaka says he’s looking forward to facing his “ex-teammate” Kawhi Leonard on Dec. 11 when the Los Angeles Clippers come to Toronto. Ibaka says he’s talked to Leonard since the two-time Finals MVP signed with the Clippers in free agency. The big man says it’s about time the Raptors got […]

Some key dates on the 2019-20 NBA schedule have been released. Among them is Kawhi Leonard’s return to Toronto, as Leonard’s LA Clippers will battle the Raptors at Scotiabank Arena on Dec. 11, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. Leonard signed with the Clippers in free agency last month. The 27-year-old spent one season […]

LA Clippers head coach Doc Rivers tried to live a normal life through the early days of free agency, frequenting his favorite Malibu restaurant despite the constant pressure-cooker that came with pursuing Kawhi Leonard along with the lateral race to acquire Paul George. According to Jackie MacMullan of ESPN, Rivers wasn’t able to enjoy his […]

Still vibing with championship glory, Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse found out his talisman player, Kawhi Leonard, would leave his team for the LA Clippers in the most random of places. The guitar-wailing aficionado was taking part on a packed house at the Tropicana in Las Vegas alongside assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren, rocking out […]

The Los Angeles Lakers narrowly missed out on convincing Kawhi Leonard to complete what might have been the biggest, baddest, and best Big Three in NBA history. Just because the reigning Finals MVP ultimately spurned his team to sign with the cross-arena rival LA Clippers, though, hardly means Anthony Davis holds any ill will towards […]

LA Clippers advisor Jerry West said it’s unheard of to get players the caliber of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George on the same team, a feat his team achieved this summer as they flipped the tables on their hallway rival Los Angeles Lakers: Jerry West on the #Clippers acquiring Kawhi Leonard and Paul George – […]

One of the Toronto Raptors’ die-hard fans doesn’t think the team should retire Kawhi Leonard’s jersey. Nav Bhatia, the Raptors fan who’ve watched all of the team’s games since it came into the NBA back in 1995, told Luke Fox of Sports Net Canada that Leonard’s jersey should never be raised into the rafters of […]

The Los Angeles Clippers had perhaps the most impactful summer of any team in the NBA. By swinging a blockbuster deal for swingman Paul George and signing NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers immediately vaulted themselves toward the top of the 2020 NBA title picture. Having officially introduced both Leonard and George earlier this […]

The Los Angeles Lakers will be entering this upcoming season with what many may consider to be somewhat of a contingency lineup. They took their shot (and failed) on Kawhi Leonard, and in truth, it’s hard to blame them for giving it a go. However, the problem is that in the process, the Lakers missed […]

Los Angeles Clippers superstar small forward Kawhi Leonard wants to let everyone know one more time he wasn’t a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers growing up. Leonard says all the people who said he was going to sign with the Lakers because they were his childhood team were proven wrong in free agency after […]

As the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, Doc Rivers surely had some insider knowledge on his team’s signing of reigning Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard. Nevertheless, this did nothing to take away from the absolute joy and excitement the 57-year-old coach felt as soon as he learned about the deal finally being confirmed. ESPN’s […]

Former NBA player and current analyst Jalen Rose claimed that Kawhi Leonard is currently the best player in the NBA on the show ‘Get Up’. Rose gave his reasons for ranking Leonard over LeBron James, insisting that Leonard’s accomplishments last season pushed him past James for the time being: ” I can’t go in to […]

According to the statistics at Basketball-Reference.com, Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry has a higher chance of making it to the Hall of Fame than Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard. Lowry’s Hall of Fame probability is 13th-most among active players (65.2% chance to make it into the Hall of Fame), which gives the former […]

Having a solid NBA culture matters in the new age of player empowerment, with stars free to go to whatever organization they choose. Don’t believe me? Ask the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Clippers how their offseason went. The Nets went out and signed free agents Kyrie Irving from the Celtics and Kevin Durant […]

Lawrence Frank, Los Angeles Clippers president of basketball operations, has revealed a Paul George-centric detail about his free agency pitch to Kawhi Leonard. Per Ben Golliver of the Washington Post, Lawrence Frank revealed that he presented a list of potential players which the Clippers could acquire. When Kawhi Leonard saw Paul George’s name, he said […]

Los Angeles, for the first time ever, is the multi-team epicenter of elite NBA basketball. The LA Clippers, after convincing Kawhi Leonard to come home and bringing in Paul George along with him, are the league’s closest equivalent to title favorites entering a season the most wide-open season in a full decade. The Los Angeles […]

The Los Angeles NBA rivalry is already heating up, and we haven’t even entered the preseason yet. The latest shot came from actor, comedian, and avid Lakers fan Jack Black. The ‘Kung Fu Panda’ voice actor laid into Kawhi Leonard for choosing to come to the ‘wrong’ L.A. team, the Clippers, before unleashing some obscenities. […]

Los Angeles Clippers small forward Paul George admits he “was a little nervous” when the Indiana Pacers drafted Kawhi Leonard in the 2011 NBA Draft. George says he was nervous because he and Leonard play the same position. The Pacers wound up trading Leonard to the San Antonio Spurs for George Hill. Fast forward to […]

Los Angeles Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank says the Clippers operated under the league’s rules in their pursuit of superstar small forward Kawhi Leonard. Frank says the Clippers never had a conversation with Leonard or his camp during the regular season or before the free agency period started on June 30. “We didn’t […]

Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers doesn’t know new superstar Kawhi Leonard that well yet, but the championship coach knows exactly the type of person he can be for the Clippers. Rivers says Leonard is an unselfish guy who understands it takes everyone on the team to win the title, and is willing to […]

What does a Los Angeles Clippers team led by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George look like? According to the two superstars, the Clippers are going to play hard on both ends of the floor every night and with a lot of grit. “Playing hard on both ends of the floor,” Leonard told Rachel Nichols of […]

The Los Angeles Clippers sent members of their organization to watch Kawhi Leonard play multiple times last season with the Toronto Raptors. During his free-agent meeting, the Clippers talked to Leonard about what they saw when watching him play. Leonard admits it was pretty cool to hear that: “You know just showing, talking to me […]

Los Angeles Clippers star small forward Kawhi Leonard had no idea why a helicopter was following his car in Toronto. When Leonard landed in Toronto to meet with the Toronto Raptors at a hotel, a helicopter followed his car from the airport to the hotel. There were a bunch of fans outside the hotel as […]

Paul George says the chance to play with Kawhi Leonard on the Los Angeles Clippers “seemed like an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.” George says he and Leonard spoke during Leonard’s free agency. Once Leonard told George he was leaning toward going back home to California, that’s when George requested a trade from the […]

Los Angeles Clippers superstar small forward Kawhi Leonard says the idea of playing with Paul George first started back in the summer of 2017 when he tried to get the San Antonio Spurs to trade for George after PG requested a trade from the Indiana Pacers. George wound up getting traded to the Oklahoma City […]

When it was revealed that Kawhi Leonard was joining the Los Angeles Clippers a couple of weeks ago, it took only minutes for the news to break that Paul George would be joining Leonard via trade. According to reports, it was Leonard who told the Clippers to look for another star before he committed to […]

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 […]

Kawhi Leonard spoke at length about his decision to join the L.A. Clippers in free agency, noting it was a decision based mostly on the closeness to his family, rather than one pertaining to his career. An often shy and quiet “fun guy,” Leonard expressed his desire to play in Los Angeles from the time […]

Kawhi Leonard was narrowly close to tipping the scales in favor of the purple and gold. According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Leonard would have likely chosen the Los Angeles Lakers if the LA Clippers didn’t find a way to trade for Paul George, which only rendered the Raptors as a third option in […]

The Toronto Raptors have been a class act after former superstar Kawhi Leonard bolted for his hometown of Los Angeles, as many expected he would when he was first traded to The North. Raptors president Masai Ujiri said this in a public statement: “We got a great deal out of this — we won a […]

Los Angeles Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard was involved in a dramatic free-agency process involving the Clippers, Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers. Many thought Leonard winding up with the Lakers was a formality, but instead he went to the other LA team, and one of the reported reasons was because Magic Johnson publicly talked about […]

Los Angeles Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard has finally addressed the rumors that he misled the Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto Raptors during free agency. Leonard said that he took his sweet little time in coming up with a decision, adding that it was the media’s fault that made it seem he did the Lakers […]

An Eastern Conference executive believes that the Los Angeles Clippers will win the Western Conference title next season as long as they can keep their superstars healthy. The Clippers placed themselves in serious contention for the title after the major roster shakeup that they made this offseason. Los Angeles signed Kawhi Leonard, who is coming […]

Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet admits he thought Kawhi Leonard would stay after their successful championship run last season. Leonard chose to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers this offseason, joining Paul George to form another superstar duo in Tinseltown. VanVleet, however, said that the Raptors did everything they can to make Leonard feel that […]

Two-time Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard says he “was very close” to signing with the Toronto Raptors or Los Angeles Lakers this summer, but the opportunity to play with Paul George on the Los Angeles Clippers sealed the deal for him to come to the Clips. Leonard signed a three-year deal with the Clippers. Kawhi on […]