TORONTO — Nostalgia is a powerful drug and there’s plenty of it going around the Toronto Raptors lately.
In the lead up to Kyle Lowry’s jersey retirement, set for Jan. 10, the Raptors honoured their former point guard with a trio of events in Toronto earlier this month. A celebration befitting of the GROAT (Greatest Raptor of All-Time), bringing together some of the franchise’s most legendary figures: champions (Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, Fred VanVleet, Serge Ibaka), cult favourites (Amir Johnson, Terrence Ross), the all-time scoring leader (DeMar DeRozan), and more.
It felt like a fever dream, pure nirvana for fans and team historians alike. With training camp getting underway in Quebec City this week and the start of a new season just around the corner, it’s back to reality. But what if you didn’t have to sober up?
In case you haven’t heard, Kawhi Leonard is a Raptor again. Seven years after his lone season north of the border culminated in the club’s first NBA championship, the man that came, conquered, and left is back.
We’ve had an entire summer to let that marinade and it’s still hard to believe. When Leonard made his unprecedented decision to head home and join the Los Angeles Clippers, fresh off a title run with Toronto in the summer of 2019, the thought of him returning one day would have seemed unfathomable. Even Bobby Webster was surprised when he first heard rumblings of Leonard’s desire for a reunion during draft week back in June.
“We were excited,” Webster, the Raptors’ general manager and executive vice president, said last week. “We all have good memories and good feelings from 2018-19. But at the same time, you have to be honest with yourself about whether it makes sense at this point in time, at this juncture for this team and the development of this team. But yeah, your antennas go up and you want to hear more.”
Well, it turns out the enigmatic superstar is sentimental too, perhaps more so than we thought.
“A big part of it was fans, legacy, us doing the impossible here [in 2019],” Leonard said at his re-introductory press conference on Monday. “Just the energy of the city and the people are why I wanted to come back.”
He wisely led off with a scripted statement acknowledging the NBA’s investigation into him and the Clippers, signalling his intent to move forward and focus on his future with the Raptors. But unlike his intro presser from back in 2018, it’s a future he genuinely seemed excited about.
Leonard didn’t choose Toronto the first time around and, by all accounts, he never intended to stay. He was a mercenary on a mission. Still, the Raptors did everything in their power – and, crucially, within the guidelines of the collective bargaining agreement – to show him a different future than the one he imagined for himself. A world-class organization committed to making him and his family comfortable. A renowned medical staff that fashioned a treatment and load-management plan around his individual needs. A passionate fan base spanning an entire country that was ready to embrace him as their own.
It took seven mostly disappointing seasons in L.A., multiple serious injuries, and getting caught and disciplined – albeit lightly – for his part in a complex salary cap circumvention scheme for him to fully appreciate, and even miss, his time in Canada. He doesn’t regret leaving, but he also learned a valuable lesson along the way: the grass isn’t always greener.
“I made my decision to go to L.A. based on my family,” Leonard said. “I’m a big family guy. Had a lot of older people in my family that I was able to spend time with [before they] passed away. And just seeing babies being born, [spending time with] my cousins and nieces, that was all great for me, and I can’t take that back. Those times cherished and to be able to see family and hug them before they passed, it doesn’t make me think about the basketball aspect of it too much.”
But there was more motivating Leonard’s return than just nostalgia. Familiarity with the organization, the market, and sports science guru Alex McKechnie didn’t hurt, but there were multiple layers behind his well-thought-out decision to feature Toronto atop a (very) shortlist of preferred destinations.
Money was a key factor, as it often is in this or any business. The market for an injury-plagued 35-year-old tied to an ongoing NBA investigation wasn’t robust, but there were a few interested teams willing to give Leonard the contract extension that the Clippers were not. Miami, Minnesota, and Detroit are believed to have been among them. What separated the Raptors from the others?
At 35 and in the wake of controversy, multiple league sources with connections to Leonard have wondered whether the soft-spoken star could be starting to consider his legacy. It’s a complicated one, to be sure.
He’s a no-doubt Hall of Famer whenever he, or his body, decides to call it a career. He’s a seven-time All-Star and All-NBA player. He has a couple of Defensive Player of the Year awards to go with a pair of championships and Finals MVP trophies. But when it’s all said and done, who is going to celebrate him like the Raptors are celebrating Lowry?
After leaving the organization in ruin, the Clippers are anxious to put the Leonard era behind them. His relationship with the San Antonio Spurs – where he spent the first seven seasons of his career and won his first championship – remains murky, at best. Who would’ve thought that the place he once viewed as a pitstop would be his most conceivable path to finding a home?
While Leonard and his now former representation have made some, um, questionable business decisions over the years, recognizing the earning and legacy-enhancing potential of adding to his Raptors resume and finishing his career in Toronto is a stroke of genius.
He’s been laying the groundwork. Leonard didn’t play in the Clippers’ lone visit to Toronto last season – he was nursing a sprained ankle – but he did make a guest appearance at a youth basketball clinic in Scarborough.
“Toronto is still in my heart,” he said at the event, where they dedicated a court to him and his iconic Game 7 buzzer-beater against Philadelphia.
He’s already gotten a small taste of what the market has to offer. National prestige. Countless endorsement opportunities across the country (though he’ll have to show up and do some work for them, presumably). He witnessed it firsthand. It’s what the Raptors tried to sell him on seven years ago.
He’ll have the chance to build on what he’s already accomplished here and, perhaps, cement himself as one of the best players in franchise history, if not the greatest. But first, there is some healing and a whole bunch of work to be done.
There were some sour feelings inside the Raptors front office – which, aside from Masai Ujiri, remains intact – over what they felt was a bad faith contract negotiation in 2019. After much smoother extension negotiations with Leonard’s new reps – which does not include his suspended uncle, Dennis Robertson – that appears to be water under the bridge.
Taking $11 million less than his max in those negotiations and waiving his $7.5 million trade kicker are small concessions in the grand scheme of things, but they serve as a means of rebuilding trust and buying some goodwill.
Fans were disappointed when he left, understandably so, but they’ve always revered the player most responsible for delivering them their championship. If this version of Leonard is anything like the one we saw in 2018-19, all will be forgiven quickly. Merely coming back might be enough to win over a fan base that has long had a chip on its shoulder. For a star player at or close to the height of his powers to circle Toronto on his wish list is a meaningful sentiment. In three decades of NBA basketball in Canada, that had never happened before.
“This is a very special place,” said local kid R.J. Barrett, who was preparing for the NBA draft when he watched Leonard lead his hometown team to the championship seven years ago. “I think it’s even showing with everything that’s been happening with Kyle. I think you can see that when you come here and you win, but you also play hard and give your all to the city, you see how the country treats you in return.”
“The biggest thing when we first agreed to the trade, speaking to Kawhi and his rep, is that he didn’t want this to be a short-term thing,” Webster said. “He wanted to stay here for a while. That’s hopefully what people took away from the extension. We want to have a window here, whether it’s two, three years, or beyond that, where we’re able to compete and put together a team worthy of competing for a title. That’s the goal.”
But to assume that his second stint will be as successful as his first is to forget that we’re talking about a player who hasn’t appeared in more than 68 games since 2017, a player who’s three NBA stops have all ended in controversy.
As unlikely as this reunion would have seemed even a few short months ago, it checks off a lot of boxes for a lot of people. It makes complete sense for Leonard at this late but still productive point of his career. It opens a legitimate contention window for an ascending Raptors team, who envision Leonard fitting seamlessly next to Scottie Barnes, Collin Murray-Boyles and the rest of their intriguing young core.
However, just because something can turn out well doesn’t necessarily mean that it will. It’s up to him now. Sometimes home is the last place you expect it to be. It took a while for Leonard to realize that, but better late than never. His story is still being written. He’ll determine how it ends and whether Toronto gets to be part of the ending.
