Newly acquired All-Star Kawhi Leonard sat down with members of the Toronto Raptors media on Monday for his first official appearance since joining the team. Leonard was asked to describe himself to the fans in Canada who might not know him that well.
Keep in mind that Leonard is a quiet kind of guy. He did, however, seem to be in a good mood.
āA lot of people up here don't know much about you,ā Doug Smith of The Toronto Star said to Leonard during the interview. āHow would you describe yourself, and what would you like people to know about you?ā
āI'm a fun guy,ā Leonard replied. āObviously, I love the game of basketball, but there are more questions that you would have to ask in order for me to tell you about myself. I just can't give you a whole spiel.
āI don't even know where you're sitting at,ā Leonard said with a smile, peering past the cameras to find the person asking questions.
Kawhi speaks for the first timeā¦ š¤·š»āāļø pic.twitter.com/J3B92tC0Gj
ā Dime (@DimeUPROXX) September 24, 2018
Leonard sat out much of last season with the San Antonio Spurs due to a quad injury. In fact, the 27-year-old played in just nine games, racking up averages of 16.2 points on 46.8 percent shooting from the field (31.4 percent from beyond the arc), 4.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.0 steals, and 1.0 block in 23.3 minutes per outing.
Though there was some speculation surrounding his injury, Leonard noted that he is āfeeling greatā in his interview with the media.
Kawhi: āRight now Iām feeling great."
ā (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) September 24, 2018
The Spurs traded Leonard and Danny Green to the Raptors for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first-round pick earlier this summer.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse noted Monday that Leonard is āall systems goā for training camp. In fact, Nurse feels that Leonard's health will not be an issue this season.
Nurse, asked if Kawhi's health is going to be a problem: "Not from what I've seen, at all. But a guy that hasn't played that much (over the last year), we're going to monitor it."
ā Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) September 24, 2018
The Raptors finished the 2017-18 regular season with an overall record of 59-23, which landed the team a No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. They could be even better with Leonard on the squad.