Having been a first-hand witness to the meteoric rise of Toronto Raptors superstar Kawhi Leonard during their time together with the San Antonio Spurs, Danny Green described how astounding Kawhi's transition was to becoming the outstanding player he is today.
Green started off by sharing his first impression on Leonard when the latter first arrived in San Antonio in 2011.
“Just how long his arms were and how big his hands were, like everybody else,” Danny Green told Tim Bontemps of ESPN with a smile, when asked what stood out about Leonard when he first met him. “He's like a science experiment.
“At first, nobody could gauge or guess [what he'd become]. Nobody could predict that. Nobody looked at him as something special.”
Boy were they wrong.
Green went on to express how shocked people were — perhaps himself included — once Leonard started making a name for himself by quickly becoming not only one of the best defenders in the league, but also transitioning into a tremendous two-way player.
“I think maybe a couple years ago, early in his career when he first started coming into his own, there was a lot of, ‘Where the f— did this come from?'” Danny Green said. “Coming into the league he was a defensive guy and he became a one-on-one offensive guy who could shoot the ball from 3.
“When he started emerging, I think teams were like, ‘Wow.'”
Interestingly, Green has been teammates with Leonard throughout the latter's eight seasons in the league, so it would be safe to say that Green is an authority on Kawhi. His narrative here is not something we're hearing for the first time, but it certainly holds much more weight coming from someone who has been at Leonard's side since day one with both the Spurs and Raptors.
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