INGLEWOOD — The calm exterior hides Kawhi Leonard’s intense drive to succeed, his passion for the game and the need to prove he can carry the Clippers to respectability this season after a woeful start.
Leonard wants to show the rest of the NBA that when healthy, he can still be one of the league’s elite players. That, at 34 years old, he still is still a viable player among the young guns, those who shoot at will and play with abandon.
And to validate his standing among his youthful peers, Leonard changed his game this season, elevating his 3-point shooting and scoring at a remarkable pace with league-best 30.2 points per game, to go with 6.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists, since late December. He is playing like the 2019 version of Kawhi, the one who was the NBA Finals MVP for the Toronto Raptors, showing a physicality and an aggressiveness that earned him a seventh All-Star Game nod.
He is a member of the USA Stripes squad for Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, which also includes the USA Stars and a World squad in a tournament-style format.
“There’s like a certain attitude from him,” Clippers forward John Collins said. “It’s fascinating to watch how intentional he is almost all the time. A real intensity and effort on nearly possession as the driving force.”
And it’s not just his teammates who have taken notice. New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns isn’t surprised at the level Leonard is currently exhibiting.
“Kawhi is special man,” Towns said. “He can step up to levels at any time when he needs to. He’s one of those few players that flips a switch and turns into a different animal, a different beast.”
All of which means little to the normally stoic Leonard. He tends to shut out others’ opinions about him, listen to his own drum beat and focus on what he needs to do – win games.
“It’s all about me and I know what it takes to become a better basketball player on that floor, and if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out,” he said. “I’ll put in the hours and like I said, I have confidence in shooting it.”
“I just know end game is where you get better at. Don’t shy away from end game reps. Learn that at a young age and still have it in me.”
Leonard’s recent resurgence earned him his seventh All-Star selection, but his spot among the reserves didn’t come without controversy.
He initially was left off the roster despite his season averages of 28.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 steals while shooting 49.5% from the field, 38.9% from behind the arc and 91.4% from the free-throw line. That on top of a 33.6% usage rate, just 2.1 turnovers per game and his physical, contact defense.
Some wondered if it was the Clippers sub-.500 record, which currently is 26-28, though they are an NBA-best 20-7 since Dec. 20.
Others, though, believed his snub was tied to his no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration, a green banking firm, and whether the payments circumvented salary cap rules. The NBA is awaiting the findings of an investigation.
Leonard’s exclusion from the original list of reserves drew backlash from his teammates, coach and fans, and two days later he was added as a reserve (partly to balance out the player pool being split into three rosters). He called the snub/no snub “a roller coaster” but said he was never focused on making the team.
“Like I said before, I worked for everything. I did not go looking for handouts, so I was just going to keep putting in my work,” Leonard said Saturday. “I didn’t get down and there was a lot going on at that time as well, so I was just more focused on the team and, like I said before, everybody that got the nod, they deserved it. They all worked hard for it.”
Reggie Miller, a broadcaster and former NBA star, said based simply on X’s and O’s, Leonard deserved to be on the All-Star reserve list this season.
“There’s no questioning Kawhi Leonard’s resume,” Miller said. “Think about it. Two-time champ, two-time Finals MVP. I think the question marks that have come over the last several seasons have been because of the injuries and his inability to play at the biggest moments in the playoffs.
“But just go back to December and look at the numbers. You could make a case those are MVP-type numbers and for them to be 6-21 at one point to where they have landed right now? A lot of that has come on the shoulders of Kawai.
“He’s got to be among the top two, top three best two-way players in this game, certainly in today’s game,” Miller said, “and being able to get it done at both ends.”
Leonard’s ability to dominate has been evident during the Clippers’ recent run, most notably in the final game before the All-Star break when he scored 19 points in the fourth quarter of a back-to-back set against the Houston Rockets to secure a comeback win.
“He’s a shot-maker,” Rockets star Kevin Durant said. “One of the greatest of all time.”