Kawhi Leonard

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Kawhi Leonard hit a shot on the 12th of May, 2019, that bounced off the rim four times before falling. Game 7. Eastern Conference semifinals. The Toronto Raptors down one with under a second left. As the ball rattled in, Leonard let out a scream , a sound so rare from a man known for near-total silence that it startled his own teammates swarming around him.

  Leonard himself described it simply: "It was great. That's something I've never experienced before, Game 7, game-winning shot. It was a blessing to be able to get to that point and make that shot and feel that moment."

  That shot was the first game-7 buzzer beater in NBA history. It sent Leonard and the Raptors to the conference finals, and it crystallized something observers had been grappling with for years. Here was a man who almost never spoke, never posted on social media, and barely showed emotion on the court. Yet he kept producing moments that stopped the sport cold.

  Who is Kawhi Leonard? How did a boy from Moreno Valley, California become a two-time NBA champion, a two-time Finals MVP, and a player ranked among the greatest two-way performers the league has ever seen? And what drives someone who pursues greatness so quietly that the world keeps being surprised when it arrives?

• 2. The Making of the Claw

  ›

  Mark Leonard owned a car wash in Compton, California. On the 18th of January, 2008, he was shot and killed there. His son Kawhi was sixteen years old. Leonard insisted on playing basketball the very next evening. He broke down crying after the game. The murder was never solved.

  Sports Illustrated noted in 2011 that NBA scouts saw Leonard as a physical marvel: 6 feet 7 inches tall, a 7-foot-3-inch wingspan, and hands measuring 11 inches across. They called him "too strong to screen and too long to elude." Those hands would later earn him the nickname "the Claw" or "Klaw."

  Leonard grew up in Moreno Valley, attending Canyon Springs High School before transferring to Martin Luther King High School for his junior year. In his senior year at King High, he and Tony Snell led the school's Wolves to a 30-3 record. Leonard averaged 22.6 points, 13.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 3 blocks per game that season, and was named California Mr. Basketball.

  Rivals.com listed him as a four-star recruit and ranked him the No. 8 small forward in the nation for the class of 2009. College coaches came calling, and Leonard chose San Diego State University, where his abilities quickly outgrew the campus that shaped them.

• 3. San Diego State and the Draft

  ›

  As a freshman at San Diego State in 2009-10, Leonard averaged 12.7 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. He led the Mountain West Conference in rebounding, won the conference's Freshman of the Year award, and was named MWC tournament MVP after the Aztecs won the tournament title. San Diego State finished 25-9 and earned an NCAA tournament bid, losing to Tennessee 62-59 in the first round , Leonard recording 12 points and 10 rebounds in that exit.

  His sophomore season pushed the program further. With Leonard averaging 15.7 points and 10.4 rebounds, the Aztecs finished 34-3 and won back-to-back conference tournament championships. They advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to Connecticut, which went on to win the national championship. Leonard earned consensus second-team All-American honors and made the decision to skip his final two years of college eligibility for the 2011 NBA draft.

  On the 1st of February 2020, San Diego State retired Leonard's number 15, making him the first player in the men's basketball program to have his jersey raised to the rafters. He was inducted into the San Diego State Hall of Fame in 2016, the third number retirement in program history.

  On draft night in 2011, the Indiana Pacers selected Leonard with the 15th overall pick, then traded him to the San Antonio Spurs before he played a single minute for Indiana.

• 4. Becoming a Champion in San Antonio

  ›

  When Leonard arrived in San Antonio, scouts worried his offensive game was too limited. Sporting News noted he was known far more for defense and rebounding than scoring, and his outside shooting drew concern. He was compared to Metta World Peace and Gerald Wallace. He wore jersey number 2 because his preferred No. 15 was already worn by Matt Bonner.

  Leonard finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and made the All-Rookie First Team. By 2013, playing in his first NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, he averaged 14.6 points and 11.1 rebounds as San Antonio lost in seven games. That defeat made the next summer feel unfinished.

  On the 10th of June, 2014, in game 3 of the rematch Finals, Leonard scored 29 points in a 111-92 San Antonio victory. The Spurs won the series 4-1. Leonard averaged 17.8 points on 61% shooting across the series and was named Finals MVP at 22 years and 351 days old, making him the third-youngest winner of the award in NBA history, behind only Magic Johnson's wins in 1980 and 1982.

  He was also the first player since Chauncey Billups in 2004 to win Finals MVP in a season he had not been named an All-Star. On the 23rd of April 2015, Leonard won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, joining Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players in league history to have won both that award and the Finals MVP.

• 5. The Injury Crisis and the Trade

  ›

  The 2016-17 season raised expectations to their highest point. Leonard set a new career high of 41 points in an overtime win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in January 2017, becoming the first San Antonio player to score at least 30 in six consecutive games since Mike Mitchell in 1986. He finished the regular season averaging 25.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.8 steals per game.

  Then, in game 1 of the Western Conference finals against Golden State, Leonard landed on Zaza Pachulia's foot after a field-goal attempt and re-aggravated an existing ankle injury. He exited with 26 points and did not play again in the series. The Spurs lost to the Warriors in four games.

  The following season unraveled publicly. Leonard missed the first 27 games with a right quadriceps injury. He appeared in only nine games before further setbacks ended his year. Reports described a players-only meeting in March as "tense and emotional" after teammates appealed for his return. Leonard sought a second opinion from his own doctors when the Spurs cleared him to play, and the disagreement widened into a rift.

  In July 2018, Leonard and teammate Danny Green were traded to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Pöltl, and a protected 2019 first-round pick. Raptors president Masai Ujiri accepted the risk that Leonard might leave as a free agent at season's end. That gamble would define what followed.

• 6. One Season in Toronto

  ›

  On the 17th of October, 2018, Leonard opened his Raptors tenure with 24 points and 12 rebounds in a 116-104 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Two days later he had 31 points against the Boston Celtics. On the 1st of January 2019, he scored a then career-high 45 points in a 122-116 win over the Utah Jazz.

  The playoff run that followed placed Leonard in a category of all-time great postseason performances. Against the Philadelphia 76ers in game 1 of the second round, he scored 45 points on 16-of-23 shooting. Then came the game-7 buzzer beater over Philadelphia that sent the city of Toronto into the streets.

  Against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the conference finals, Leonard scored 36 points including eight in a second overtime in game 3, then followed with 35 points in game 5, then 27 points and 17 rebounds in the series-clinching game 6. In the Finals against Golden State, he scored 36 points and 12 rebounds in a game-4 road win to give Toronto a 3-1 series lead. The Raptors closed it out in game 6, 114-110.

  Leonard was named Finals MVP for the second time. He became the third Finals MVP to win the award with two teams, joining LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the first player to win it with a team from each conference. His 732 points in the 2019 playoffs ranked third in single-postseason history behind Michael Jordan's 759 in 1992 and LeBron James's 748 in 2018. In July 2019, he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers for a reported three-year, $103 million contract, returning to his hometown.

• 7. Los Angeles and the Weight of Injury

  ›

  Leonard's Clippers debut on the 22nd of October, 2019, produced 30 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists in a win over the Lakers. In February 2020, he became the first recipient of the All-Star Game MVP award after its renaming in Kobe Bryant's honor.

  In the 2021 playoffs, Leonard suffered a partial ACL tear in his right knee in game 4 against the Utah Jazz. On the 13th of July 2021, he underwent surgery. He then re-signed with the Clippers on August 12 to a max four-year, $176.3 million deal and missed the entire following season recovering.

  Knee problems continued to surface. In 2023 a torn meniscus ended his playoff run after two games. In 2024 another knee injury limited him to two playoff games. Before the 2024-25 season, it was announced he would miss time due to inflammation in the same knee, a setback that occurred in July while he was training with the United States national team before withdrawing from the 2024 Paris Olympics. He was replaced on the Olympic roster by Derrick White.

  After missing the first 34 games of 2024-25, Leonard made his return on the 4th of January, 2025, scoring 12 points against the Atlanta Hawks. In a further disruption, he stepped away from the team to be with family members forced to evacuate during the Southern California wildfires.

  He still averaged 27.9 points per game for the full season, a career high, and signed a three-year, $153 million extension with the Clippers on the 10th of January, 2024.

• 8. The Scandal and the Record Season

  ›

  On the 3rd of September, 2025, investigative reporter Pablo S. Torre reported that Leonard had signed a $28 million endorsement deal in 2021 with Aspiration, an environmental company that has since declared bankruptcy. Torre cited anonymous former employees who alleged the deal required no action from Leonard other than remaining a Clipper, and that it represented a scheme to pay Leonard beyond the NBA's salary cap limits. A later report added that Leonard also received $20 million in Aspiration company stock, bringing his total promised compensation to $48 million. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million in Aspiration.

  The Clippers denied the allegations, calling them "absurd" and "flat-out wrong." Ballmer stated in an ESPN interview that he considered himself a victim of fraud by Aspiration and had no knowledge of the specific contract terms Leonard signed. The NBA announced it was investigating the matter. A separate report by the Toronto Star noted that during 2019 contract discussions with the Raptors, Leonard's camp had requested, among other things, at least $10 million annually in similar no-show sponsorship income.

  Meanwhile, Leonard had an extraordinary 2025-26 season on the court. On the 28th of December, 2025, he scored a career-high 55 points along with 11 rebounds, five steals, and three blocks in a win over the Detroit Pistons, becoming the first player in NBA history to record at least 55 points, 10 rebounds, five steals, and three blocks in a single game. He shot 17-of-26 from the field and scored 26 points in the third quarter alone.

  He later set a new Clippers franchise record by scoring at least 20 points in 45 consecutive games. The team, after starting 6-21, posted a 36-19 record the rest of the way to finish 42-40, becoming the first team in NBA history to recover from 15 games below .500 and end the season with a winning record. On the 27th of March, 2026, Leonard capped a comeback from a 24-point deficit with a game-winning jumper against the Indiana Pacers, with 0.4 seconds remaining, his 14th career game-winning shot including the playoffs.