50 Fun Facts About Kawhi Leonard

Kawhi Leonard's exceptionally large hands and ball-hawking defense earned him which nickname?

The Klaw, also spelled Claw, suits a defender whose hands measured 11 inches when scouts sized him up before the 2011 draft.

Kawhi Leonard earned which nickname by describing himself, with a surprising laugh, at a 2018 media day?

Fun Guy became a running joke because the famously reserved star, asked to describe himself for Toronto fans, burst into laughter that startled nearly everyone in the room.

Kawhi Leonard hit the first Game 7 buzzer-beater in NBA history in 2019 to eliminate which team?

The Philadelphia 76ers lost 92–90 when his shot from the corner bounced on the rim four times before dropping through.

Kawhi Leonard played two seasons of college basketball at which California school?

San Diego State went 34–3 in his second season and reached the Sweet 16, and in 2020 the school retired his jersey number.

Which team drafted Kawhi Leonard 15th overall in 2011, only to trade him to San Antonio that night?

The Indiana Pacers held his rights only briefly, sending the future two-time Finals MVP away for a point guard born and raised in their own city.

Kawhi Leonard won Finals MVP in 2014 against which team, a rematch of the 2013 Finals?

The Miami Heat had won the 2013 meeting in seven games; a year later San Antonio took the series 4–1 and he shot 61 percent.

Kawhi Leonard's Raptors won the 2019 NBA title by beating which two-time defending champions?

The Golden State Warriors fell in six games, making Toronto the first team based outside the United States to win an NBA championship.

Which Toronto Raptors star was traded to San Antonio in the 2018 deal that brought Kawhi Leonard north?

DeMar DeRozan had spent his first nine NBA seasons in Toronto, which made the swap a gamble for a team unsure its new star would stay beyond one year.

Kawhi Leonard left Air Jordan in 2018 to sign a multi-year endorsement deal with which shoe company?

New Balance signed him in November 2018, seven months before his second championship, and went on to launch products in collaboration with him.

Which All-Star did the Clippers acquire from Oklahoma City in 2019 to pair with new signing Kawhi Leonard?

Paul George cost the Clippers five first-round draft picks and two players, the price of landing both stars in a single summer.

Kawhi Leonard's self-given nickname Board Man points to his appetite for which basketball statistic?

Rebounds are known as boards in basketball slang, and he led his college conference in them as a freshman.

Which longtime San Antonio Spurs head coach guided Kawhi Leonard for his first seven NBA seasons?

Gregg Popovich ran the Spurs for 29 seasons and won five championships, the last of them in 2014 with a 22-year-old Finals MVP.

Kawhi Leonard was the first winner of the NBA All-Star Game MVP award after it was renamed for which player?

Kobe Bryant had won the award four times, and the league renamed it in February 2020, three weeks after his death in a helicopter crash.

Which two-word term describes the scheduled rest games Kawhi Leonard sat out to protect his body?

Load management was the reason given for most of the 22 games he missed in Toronto's title season, and he went on to play all 24 playoff games.

Kawhi Leonard's Raptors beat which top-seeded team in the 2019 Eastern Conference finals?

The Milwaukee Bucks owned the league's best record and led the series 2–0 before Toronto won four games in a row.

Kawhi Leonard's 2017 playoffs ended when he landed on which center's foot in the Western Conference finals?

Zaza Pachulia slid a foot under the landing shooter, and the NBA later changed its rules on reckless closeouts, a change that carries his name.

Kawhi Leonard won the 2014 title alongside Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili and which starting point guard?

Tony Parker, Duncan and Ginóbili were playing their last NBA Finals together, so the trio's final title came as a new star took over.

Kawhi Leonard has primarily played which position during his NBA career?

Small forward is his listed spot, though his reach lets him guard at least three positions and shadow the other team's best scorer.

Kawhi Leonard made a cameo in a 2021 music video by which Canadian rapper and singer?

Drake cast him in the comic video for Way 2 Sexy, released a few months after the Clippers star announced a hip hop project of his own.

Kawhi Leonard's Clippers lost a 3–1 series lead to which team in the 2020 Western Conference semifinals?

The Denver Nuggets became the first NBA team to erase a 3–1 deficit twice in the same playoffs, and he made only 6 of 22 shots in Game 7.

Kawhi Leonard's stoic manner fits which nickname of his, borrowed from an Arnold Schwarzenegger film title?

The Terminator sits beside Board Man and The Hand on his list of nicknames, a fitting label for a star who rarely gives interviews.

Kawhi Leonard filed a 2019 federal lawsuit against which sportswear giant over the copyright to his logo?

Nike is the parent company of Air Jordan, his former sponsor, and he claimed it had copyrighted the logo without his consent.

Kawhi Leonard finished second in the 2016 NBA MVP voting behind which sharpshooting point guard?

Stephen Curry beat him to the award in the same season that the Spurs star was named Defensive Player of the Year for the second year running.

Which first-year head coach led Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors to the 2019 NBA championship?

Nick Nurse had been promoted from assistant the previous summer, replacing a coach who was fired and then named NBA Coach of the Year weeks later.

Which six-time All-Star point guard ran the offense for Kawhi Leonard's 2019 champion Toronto Raptors?

Kyle Lowry is widely regarded as one of the greatest Raptors ever, and his steal set up his co-star's emphatic dunk late in the game that clinched that year's conference finals.

Kawhi Leonard missed the entire 2021–22 season after surgery on which knee ligament?

ACL surgery in July 2021 repaired a partial tear suffered during the playoffs, and the Clippers failed to reach the postseason without him.

Kawhi Leonard's Clippers finished the 2019–20 season inside the NBA Bubble at which Florida resort?

Walt Disney World hosted 22 teams behind closed doors, and he was named to the All-Bubble Second Team for his play in the seeding games.

Which billionaire owned the Los Angeles Clippers when Kawhi Leonard signed in 2019?

Steve Ballmer, a former Microsoft chief executive, bought the team in 2014 for a reported $2 billion and later financed a new arena of its own.

When Kawhi Leonard won Finals MVP at age 22 in 2014, which Lakers legend was the only younger winner ever?

Magic Johnson won it at 20 in 1980 and again at 22 in 1982, beating the Spurs star's mark by less than two months.

Kawhi Leonard was the first non-center since which Pistons star to repeat as Defensive Player of the Year?

Dennis Rodman won the award in 1990 and 1991 with Detroit, where he played mainly the same position and was sent to shut down the opponent's best player.

Before Kawhi Leonard, only Michael Jordan and which Rockets center won Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year?

Hakeem Olajuwon went one better in 1994, becoming the first player named MVP, Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in a single season.

The Finals MVP award Kawhi Leonard won with two different teams is named for which Boston Celtics great?

Bill Russell won 11 championships as a player, and the award took his name in 2009, five years before the Spurs star first received it.

Kawhi Leonard went 15th in the 2011 NBA draft; which Duke point guard did Cleveland take first overall?

Kyrie Irving went first, yet fourteen names were called before the future two-time Finals MVP, who was traded on the same night.

Which point guard did San Antonio give up in the 2011 draft-night trade that landed Kawhi Leonard?

George Hill went the other way, while the Spurs also received the rights to two European prospects in the same deal.

After Kawhi Leonard missed a late free throw in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals, whose corner three forced overtime?

Ray Allen's shot with 5.2 seconds left tied the game, and the Spurs lost in overtime and then dropped Game 7 as well.

Kawhi Leonard played only nine games in 2017–18 because of an injury to which thigh muscle?

Quadriceps tendinopathy kept him out, and a disagreement with the Spurs over his rehabilitation led him to ask for a trade.

Which sharpshooting Spurs guard was traded to Toronto alongside Kawhi Leonard in July 2018?

Danny Green broke the record for three-pointers in a Finals series in 2013, then won a second ring with his old teammate in 2019.

Which Toronto Raptors president took the gamble of trading for Kawhi Leonard in the summer of 2018?

Masai Ujiri made the deal knowing his new star could leave after one season; the reward was the franchise's first championship.

Before Kawhi Leonard, which Raptors star was the only one to top 40 points in a playoff game?

Vince Carter scored 50 in a 2001 playoff game; eighteen years later the newcomer answered with 45 in a series opener.

Which young guard did the Clippers trade to Oklahoma City in 2019 to build around Kawhi Leonard?

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had just finished his rookie season in Los Angeles; in Oklahoma City he grew into the league's Most Valuable Player.

Which coach, who once led Michigan's Fab Five, coached Kawhi Leonard for two seasons in college?

Steve Fisher took over the program in 1999 and stayed until 2017, building a team that won 34 games in his star's second year.

Which future Chicago Bulls first-round pick was Kawhi Leonard's high school teammate on a 30–3 team in 2009?

Tony Snell and his teammate took the Wolves of Riverside, California, to a number 7 national ranking that season.

Kawhi Leonard chose jersey No. 2 with the Spurs because which teammate already wore his college No. 15?

Matt Bonner kept 15, so the rookie took the 2 he had worn as a child and kept it in San Antonio, Toronto and Los Angeles.

Kawhi Leonard announced which hip hop album project in 2021, blending rap with basketball?

Culture Jam was unveiled on his first-ever Instagram Live, a surprise from a star who says he avoids social media.

Kawhi Leonard wore a clear plastic mask in 2020 after an accidental elbow from which Clippers teammate?

Serge Ibaka, also his teammate on Toronto's title team, caught him in the mouth on Christmas Day, and the wound needed eight stitches.

Kawhi Leonard in 2014 was the first Finals MVP since which Pistons guard who was not an All-Star that season?

Chauncey Billups did it in 2004, and the Spurs' 22-year-old was only the sixth player ever to manage it at the time.

Kawhi Leonard was twice drafted onto a Rising Stars Challenge team chosen by which Basketball Hall of Famer?

Charles Barkley's side, Team Chuck, beat Team Shaq in both years, and the young Spur scored 20 points in the 2013 game.

Which Boston Celtics guard replaced Kawhi Leonard on the United States roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics?

Derrick White was called up the same day the Clippers star withdrew, shortly before the team's first exhibition against Canada.

Kawhi Leonard's college career ended in the 2011 Sweet 16 with a loss to which eventual national champion?

Connecticut went on to win the title, ending a season in which his team had lost only three games.

Kawhi Leonard scored 44 points in a 176–175 double-overtime loss in 2023 to which team?

The Sacramento Kings won what was then the second-highest-scoring game in NBA history, despite his 16-of-22 shooting.