Jan 3, 2019
Leonard prepares for emotional night in return to San Antonio
Former Spurs star says he’s not sure what to expect when he steps on the court he called home for seven seasons as a member of the Toronto Raptors, Josh Lewenberg writes.
SAN ANTONIO – Kawhi Leonard blossomed into a superstar with the San Antonio Spurs.
He won a championship with them in 2014, was named Finals MVP and earned a couple of Defensive Player of the Year awards in black and silver.
Despite all of that, the lasting memory for many Spurs fans is how things ended – a mysterious falling out between player and team that centred on Leonard’s recovery from a quad injury and ultimately led to his trade demand over the summer.
It was a bizarre turn of events, to be sure. It wasn’t long ago that Leonard looked to be the face of San Antonio’s future – the player who would take the baton from Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and continue the Spurs dynasty.
Instead, Leonard returns to San Antonio’s AT&T Center on Thursday as a member of the Toronto Raptors for the first time since forcing his way out of a city he called home for seven seasons.
Any time the Spurs have welcomed back a former player – certainly one of Leonard’s ilk – it’s been a celebratory occasion. However, Leonard’s case is a unique and unprecedented one for an organization that has typically avoided controversy. The reception he will receive on Thursday night should reflect that.
Fair or not, the expectation is Leonard will be booed.
“I’m not sure,” said Leonard, who was asked how he thinks he’ll be greeted by Spurs fans ahead of Thursday’s game. “We’ll see tonight, I don’t know.”
“I’m waiting to see,” said Danny Green, Leonard’s former Spurs and current Raptors teammate. “I’m hoping one thing, I can predict or guess another, but I’m waiting to see like everyone else.”
“I think it’ll be loud, like a playoff game, I assume,” Green added. “I’m sure they’re going to be on Kawhi a little bit, they’re going to show a lot of emotions, hopefully a lot of love to both of us. At the same time, it’s a competitive nature here.”
Green came to Toronto with Leonard in the trade for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first-round pick last July, but it’s unlikely he’ll receive the same vitriol as Leonard.
In eight seasons with San Antonio – the bulk of his NBA career prior to this year – Green established himself as a starter and key contributor for some contending Spurs teams, and his exit wasn’t nearly as painful. He, like the rest of us, has been looking forward to this game.
“I guess just as much anticipation as you guys have had the first three, four months of the season or so,” Green said. “Everybody’s been waiting and being excited about this game. Even though it is one of 82, it’s a different dynamic when there’s a lot of – for certain people – emotions involved.”
Leonard isn’t the most emotionally expressive player but he admitted he’s excited to play against his former teammates. Asked if he ever regrets how things went down in San Antonio, the 27-year-old said, at times, but he’s moved on. He declined to provide further details on how his relationship with the Spurs deteriorated and why he asked to be traded.
“It meant a lot,” he said of his time in San Antonio. “I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears wearing that jersey, believing in something. I put a lot of work in here.”
Word is the Spurs have prepared a few different tribute videos for Leonard, but – as of Wednesday afternoon – were still unsure of which one to run, if any of them. They will wait to gauge the temperature of the fan base before making that decision. One thing they’ve considered is playing a tribute for both Leonard and Green together to soften the reaction.
Leonard returns to San Antonio playing his best basketball as a Raptor, and arguably the best basketball of his career. After shaking off some early season rust, Leonard is looking more like the player that finished top-3 in MVP voting in both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons with the Spurs. At 27 and just entering his prime, it’s reasonable to think his ceiling is even higher than what we’ve seen.
The forward has scored 20 or more points in a career-long 14 straight games, including a personal-best 45-point performance on New Year’s Day. Over that stretch, he’s averaging 30.8 points on 52 per cent shooting.
“He’s continuing to develop slowly but surely for us,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “Obviously he’s coming off his best game of the year, scoring-wise anyway. Early on, he kind of had some rust built up from not playing for so long, but that kind of chiselled away slowly but surely. He kind of got in some situations where he was seeing a lot of bodies thrown at him and he wasn’t used to our offence and where our guys were, and kind of smoothed through that as well. Just little things like that, getting used to our system and our players and having the ball a little bit more.”