{"id":850327,"date":"2026-09-16T23:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850327\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T23:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:40:16","slug":"kawhi-leonard-not-championship-chasing-in-toronto-i-took-a-liking-to-this-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850327\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard not \u2018championship chasing\u2019 in Toronto: \u2018I took a liking to this city\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

After rarely speaking during a yearlong scandal<\/a> centered on him, the seldom-heard Kawhi Leonard is using his words to prop up his new team.<\/p>\n

After officially being traded to the Toronto Raptors<\/a> in the wake of a summer of uncertainty, Leonard spoke on his new\/old team\u2019s \u201cOpen Gym,\u201d a documentary-style program following the team. Leonard hit on a range of topics in a nine-minute clip published Wednesday on YouTube, including his own legacy, which will forever remain difficult to define.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not really championship chasing. \u2026 I didn\u2019t want to put on a thousand jerseys,\u201d Leonard said in the video. \u201cThis city took a liking to my family, and I took a liking to this city. I really liked it.<\/a> My son was born here, and he\u2019s been asking me forever when he\u2019s going to come back. Now he\u2019s back, and he\u2019s able to see it rather than me tell him the great stories that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard famously led the Raptors to their only NBA championship in 2019 after the team boldly traded for him despite no guarantee that he would remain in Toronto when he became a free agent the following summer. He indeed left and signed with the LA Clippers, where he spent seven injury- and controversy-plagued seasons.<\/p>\n

The Raptors are again acquiring Leonard with just one year remaining on his deal. In an ironic twist, one of the likely reasons he wants to be in Toronto is the Raptors are reportedly enthusiastic about offering him an extension ahead of his free agency.<\/p>\n

In the \u201cOpen Gym\u201d clip, Bobby Webster, the Raptors\u2019 top basketball decision-maker, joked, \u201cBoard man gets paid\u201d after what appeared to be a phone call with Leonard, referencing one of Leonard\u2019s exclamations in high school<\/a> that became part of his New Balance marketing campaign. The story surfaced during the Raptors\u2019 title run.<\/p>\n

Leonard, infamously, was at the heart of the Clippers\u2019 cap-circumvention scandal. The league hit the Clippers with several penalties, including stripping them of five first-round picks. In connection with the violations, Leonard had to pay the league $700,000 but received no further penalties.<\/p>\n

The Raptors had put the trade, agreed to by the teams on June 30, on hold until the league\u2019s investigation was over. They wanted to make sure Leonard\u2019s contract wasn\u2019t voided, which would have left them down the players and picks they traded for Leonard, as well as Leonard himself.<\/p>\n

Leonard is excited about how this worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis city always gave me love and showed support from everybody. I\u2019m happy that they love what I did here,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cI gave this city everything. I was coming in that year injured, and I just gave them my all.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully they embrace me back and (I) give them all again, and we can make something special happen once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard touched on a few other topics:<\/p>\n

\u2022 He spoke with Raptors coach Darko Rajakovi\u0107 about new teammate Scottie Barnes, who finished fifth in 2025-26 Defensive Player of the Year voting and made All-Defense Second Team: \u201cIf it\u2019s Scottie\u2019s team, it\u2019s his team,\u201d Leonard told Rajakovi\u0107. \u201cI want to do whatever it takes to help you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rajakovi\u0107 also pointed out that his first NBA job<\/a> was with the San Antonio Spurs, who he helped with international scouting and coaching. He mentioned that he was in the draft room in 2011 when the Spurs traded guard George Hill for the pick they used to select Leonard.<\/p>\n

\u2022 On the team as a whole: \u201cYou know I\u2019m competitive. I think we\u2019ve got a great chance. This group played great last year. I watched them a lot. \u2026 You\u2019ve got Scottie Barnes, (he) showed his talents over the past two, three years. He\u2019s become an All-Star. He\u2019s going to be a problem this next coming year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the young guy (Collin Murray-Boyles). He brings a lot of energy to the team, shows relentlessness on the court, not scared of nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Leonard did not talk about the investigation, which has dominated the last year of his life. Expect that to be a theme this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After rarely speaking during a yearlong scandal centered on him, the seldom-heard Kawhi Leonard is using his words…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99,2970],"class_list":["post-850327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}