Who’s Kawhi Leonard?
Tim BontempsESPN
FRAN FRASCHILLA ARRIVED arrived on the 2008 Paul Pierce ability growth camp at Mater Dei Excessive College in Santa Ana, California, ready to be impressed.
“We had about 25 children there,” stated Fraschilla, the ESPN analyst and former faculty basketball coach, “and I do not wish to take a look at the checklist of children and see the place they’re ranked. I will coach the fellows within the drills — we had a two-hour exercise — and attempt to make up my thoughts after the primary exercise who can play, and who is healthier than who, or no matter.”
With that in thoughts, Fraschilla put 25 of the most effective highschool wing gamers within the nation via their paces. And, earlier than lengthy, one in every of them stood out among the many relaxation.
“After the primary morning, this child was all the time on the entrance of the road,” Fraschilla stated. “He by no means stated something within the drills, however he was a ferocious competitor. After I requested about him, they stated he was an area child from the Inland Empire [a region that begins about 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles], and we wished to present him an opportunity.
“He competed the whole three days and did not say a phrase. I do not bear in mind a dialog with him. … I do not even bear in mind what his voice was on the time.”
Greater than a decade later, the query stays: Who’s Kawhi Leonard?
Kawhi Leonard was the 48th-ranked recruit within the class of 2009, and performed two seasons at San Diego State Chris Coduto/Icon SMI
KAWHI LEONARD IS is a person of few phrases.
His coaches at San Diego State discovered that rapidly as they have been attempting to recruit him — and struggling to get him to return their telephone calls.
“He was enjoyable to speak to,” stated Justin Hutson, one of many assistant coaches on Steve Fisher’s employees who was tasked with recruiting Leonard. “However he simply wasn’t simple to get ahold of.
“As soon as you bought him on the telephone, he was partaking, would speak to you. However you simply needed to be persistent.”
Hutson, now the pinnacle coach at Fresno State, would recurrently get in his automotive and drive the roughly 100 miles north from San Diego to Martin Luther King Excessive College in Riverside, California, to see Leonard follow and play.
Finally, as Leonard’s star started to rise — he was named California’s Mr. Basketball after his senior season — main convention faculties started calling.
“I feel he thought we have been honest in what we have been saying and the way we have been behaving,” Hutson stated.
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“It is quite simple. He needs to win basketball video games, and work onerous. He is a loyal man, and I feel that was essential to him that we have been honest.”
Leonard boiled it down much more.
“I all the time thought, even simply rising up, go together with the folks that love you probably the most,” he stated. “Do not go to any person that does not need you.
“San Diego State was recruiting me, and one in every of my mates was going there, too, in order that was an enormous a part of me going there. And, them sticking round, that was that significantly better. … I wished to go to a college that beloved me.”
Leonard additionally wished to go to a college that supplied him a path to the following stage. Throughout Leonard’s senior yr of highschool, the Aztecs had a senior wing named Lorrenzo Wade, who was being mentioned as a attainable NBA second-round choose.
Although Wade in the end wasn’t drafted, it was proof sufficient to Leonard that the college would give him a real alternative to chase his formidable desires.
“I knew you would go to the NBA from the college, and that is all I wished,” Leonard stated. “To go to a college the place I may play instantly, present my expertise and be capable of be checked out by scouts.”
Kawhi Leonard began to consider he may attain the NBA when he was a junior in highschool. Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Occasions/Getty Photographs
KAWHI LEONARD IS a person with a single purpose.
It is the one underlying precept that has pushed him since highschool: He by no means will likely be accused of not working onerous sufficient.
“I all the time was once outdoors taking part in, watching the video games, attempting to work on my strikes,” Leonard informed ESPN. “I used to be in ninth grade or 10th grade, and [the other players] have been seniors, they usually have been attempting to get into Division I. However they began figuring out too late, in order that they have been D-2. I simply by no means wished to be in that predicament, the place I used to be scrambling final minute.”
That would not be an issue for Leonard, who ultimately started to consider greater objectives than Division I basketball. By the point he was a junior in highschool, Leonard was assured he may ultimately play within the NBA.
“I used to be 6-6, I may shoot the ball, and I wasn’t taking part in the publish simply because I used to be huge,” Leonard stated, surgically ticking off his expertise on the time.
And, all of the whereas, he was scanning the competitors round him to see how he measured up. As he was getting ready for his senior yr, one other sizzling prospect from a rival highschool, Malcolm Lee, was getting ready to start his faculty profession at UCLA.
“He was higher than me on the time,” Leonard stated. “However I simply knew that, if I labored, I may get there.”
And amongst those that knew Leonard greatest, there was by no means any doubt that he would put within the work.
“It is quite simple. He needs to win basketball video games, and work onerous.”
Justin Hutson on Kawhi Leonard
“[He was] self-disciplined,” stated Clint Parks, Leonard’s longtime coach. “You by no means needed to be like, ‘Hey, you wanted to be on the fitness center. Is that this essential [to you]?’ I by no means needed to say that. I do not know if another person did, however I am unable to think about it. Nothing got here earlier than getting higher.”
Leonard was all the time sizing up the following rung of competitors. The Paul Pierce camp the place he crossed paths with Fraschilla supplied him a singular alternative to separate himself from the pack. The smaller roster of attendees meant everybody watching could be pressured to see how every participant carried out.
“It was good, simply having the ability to be in entrance of NBA scouts who may see what your sport was about,” Leonard informed ESPN. “There wasn’t 100 gamers there, so they might actually see you play, and see the way you play in opposition to the most effective gamers.”
For Leonard, these greatest gamers have been the opposite native stars who served as a measuring stick. There was Lee, the close by rival whom Leonard noticed as a marker to chase down. Ditto for James Harden, one other Southern California product who would go on to be the No. Three choose within the 2009 NBA draft. At first, although, Leonard’s objectives have been much more modest than attempting to copy Harden’s rise.
“I simply all the time regarded on the final man on the top of the bench, and thought I may very well be higher than him,” Leonard stated. “I assumed I all the time had an opportunity.”
Others, although, knew Leonard may very well be extra.
“He was an NBA participant when he was a freshman in faculty,” Trevor Ariza informed ESPN.
Kawhi Leonard and Trevor Ariza first confronted one another practically a decade in the past, when Leonard was in faculty. Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports activities
KAWHI LEONARD IS not afraid to check himself in opposition to the most effective.
When he was figuring out at San Diego State in 2010, between his freshman and sophomore seasons, he acquired phrase that Ariza — then firmly entrenched as an NBA participant, and already having received a title with the Los Angeles Lakers — could be figuring out on campus.
So Leonard sought out Ariza, who had come to work out together with his coach, former Aztecs guard Tony Bland, and requested to participate. Ariza agreed, and located himself instantly impressed with how Leonard dealt with himself.
“Man, my first impression of him was, ‘This child is right here to work, interval,'” Ariza informed ESPN with fun. “It doesn’t matter what.”
That summer season in San Diego, Ariza was placing in loads of work. Day-after-day, he would get within the fitness center twice — as soon as early within the morning, after which once more within the night. It was a grueling schedule, one Ariza thought would put him above and past anybody else.
There was just one downside: Leonard.
“I prided myself on being there first particular person in on a regular basis,” Ariza stated. “And, after I acquired there, he was already there. He’d finished all the pieces he wanted to do, and he was able to work out once more. … After I noticed the work ethic he had, I knew he was going to be particular.”
2 Associated
Leonard was motivated to indicate up early to check himself in opposition to an NBA participant. And Ariza wasn’t simply any NBA participant. He was somebody Leonard revered — but additionally somebody who did not overwhelm the younger ahead on the court docket.
“Trevor was huge for me in faculty,” Leonard stated. “Taking part in in opposition to him, I simply felt like I held my very own on the time.
“I in all probability received a sport. I do not bear in mind. … [but] I used to be lucky he would let me work out with him.”
Leonard won’t bear in mind, however Ariza actually did.
“He was successful one-on-one drills that we have been taking part in. He did not win all of them, however he wished to,” Ariza stated with fun. “He went as onerous as he may each single time. … He has that edge to him that you must be the caliber of participant that he’s.”
Danny Inexperienced and Kawhi Leonard have been teammates for eight seasons. Gary Dineen/NBAE/Getty Photographs
KAWHI LEONARD IS nonetheless enhancing.
When Leonard was chosen by the Indiana Pacers with the No. 15 total choose within the 2011 draft and instantly traded to the San Antonio Spurs, he was seen as a participant with a pleasant future as a defensive stopper on the wing.
“Simply how lengthy his arms have been and the way huge his arms have been, like all people else,” Danny Inexperienced informed ESPN with a smile, when requested what stood out about Leonard when he first met him. “He is like a science experiment.
“At first, no one may gauge or guess [what he’d become]. No person may predict that. No person checked out him as one thing particular.”
The primary indicators of one thing completely different about Leonard, although, got here proper after the Spurs acquired their arms on him. With an NBA work stoppage quickly approaching, there have been solely seven days when the Spurs may work with him earlier than he would not be allowed to have contact with the group.
So Leonard spent as a lot of the week between the draft and the lockout as attainable working with Chip Engelland, the Spurs’ famed taking pictures coach; the knock on Leonard coming into the draft had been that he struggled to make pictures constantly. By the point Leonard returned to San Antonio after the 161-day lockout ended, he had utterly remade his shot. After making simply 29% of his Three-point makes an attempt from the shorter faculty line as a sophomore, he shot 37.6% from past the arc as a rookie, fifth greatest amongst rookies who tried no less than 100 Three-pointers that season.
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Issues rapidly escalated from there, to the purpose the place Leonard has grown into arguably the most effective participant on the earth — one able to impacting video games at each ends from wherever on the court docket, as he did to start out the third quarter of Sport four of the 2019 NBA Finals by hitting back-to-back Three-pointers over Draymond Inexperienced, sandwiched round stealing the ball from him.
“I feel possibly a pair years in the past, early in his profession when he first began coming into his personal, there was a number of, ‘The place the f— did this come from?'” Danny Inexperienced stated. “Coming into the league he was a defensive man and he grew to become a one-on-one offensive man who may shoot the ball from Three.
“When he began rising, I feel groups have been like, ‘Wow.'”
Leonard’s 36-point efficiency Friday night time was his 14th 30-point sport this postseason. Solely Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant have had extra. It is spectacular firm for somebody who wasn’t seen as a scorer when he got here into the league.
“You bought to present him his credit score,” Draymond Inexperienced stated. “He imposed his will on the sport, and all the opposite guys adopted him. So I am undecided if it’ll ever appear to be these different guys, however he will get the job finished.”
As for the way he will get it finished, Parks has a easy rationalization.
“I all the time inform folks, ‘Kawhi Leonard has been the reality,'” Parks stated. “His story is about his work ethic, for those who ask me. That is what’s going to all the time stand out about him.”
Kawhi Leonard flashed a uncommon smile on media day again in September. Chris Younger/The Canadian Press by way of AP
KAWHI LEONARD IS a enjoyable man.
That was his description of himself — one he instantly adopted up with “I really like the sport of basketball” — when launched to the Toronto media in September. New Stability launched a “Enjoyable Man” marketing campaign after signing Leonard earlier this season, and the bizarre chuckle that ended his reply at that media session has since turn out to be the stuff of viral legend.
However those that know Leonard away from the court docket will unanimously say he is far funnier than given credit score for.
“There is not any query he has a dry humorousness,” Hutson stated. “That describes him very nicely.”
Raptors teammate Kyle Lowry backed up that sentiment.
“He is humorous as s—,” Lowry stated. “He is acquired a dry humorousness. He is acquired a Vince Vaughn-like [sense of humor].”
This assertion was later relayed to Leonard.
“Vince Vaughn? Who’s that?” Leonard requested.
One of many stars of “Previous College” is described to Leonard, who exhibits a glimpse of recognition.
“Oh, yeah, yeah. I do know who you are speaking about,” Leonard stated, breaking out in a smile.
Then, he pauses.
“I do not know. I suppose folks describe you higher than your self, proper?”