He was the “fun guy.” The board man who got paid.
He overcame injury to reclaim his rightful place as one of the very best basketball players on the planet. He conquered the NBA world for a second time, bringing Canada its first championship. Then he joined the Los Angeles Clippers, ready to start anew.
“What it do, baby?”
For Kawhi Leonard in 2019, there finally is an answer to his infamous question: He did everything – without talking much.
Leonard is The Associated Press male athlete of the year, comfortably winning a vote by AP member sports editors and AP beat writers. He is the fifth NBA player to win the award, joining three-time recipients LeBron James (2013, ’16, ’18) and Michael Jordan (1991-93) as well as Larry Bird (1986) and Stephen Curry (2015). The award has been given annually since 1931.
Simone Biles was announced Thursday as the women’s recipient for 2019.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James, left, and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard chase a loose ball during the second half of Wednesday night’s game. The Clippers won the NBA’s marquee matchup on Christmas, 111-106. / AP photo by Ringo H.W. ChiuLeonard was the NBA Finals MVP for the second time, leading the Toronto Raptors to their first league championship – five years after he first smudged his fingerprints on both trophies with the San Antonio Spurs. He wound up leaving the Raptors this past summer for the Clippers, returning to his native Southern California and instantly turning the historically woeful franchise into one of the top teams in the league.
On a return trip to Toronto this month, Leonard summed up his lone season with the Raptors: “The ride was fun. I had a great time.”
By now, it’s no secret that Leonard is a man of few words. He is not a man of few accomplishments.
He received more than twice as many points in the balloting as any of the other 18 male athletes who received votes. Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was second, followed by Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tennis champion Rafael Nadal and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who won the NBA’s season MVP honor for 2018-19.
“Kawhi’s pretty steady,” said San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, whose fifth title with the Spurs was aided by Leonard. “He’s not a big talker. He doesn’t try to find the limelight or anything like that. He’s just a good guy who wanted to be good.”
Somewhere along the way, he became great.
Leonard was the best player in the 2019 playoffs after a regular season when he missed 22 games mostly because of what has become known as “load management” – the fancy term used on nights when he would sit out to rest. Leonard missed most of the 2017-18 season with the Spurs because of a complicated leg injury, and the NBA said last month that he is still dealing with “an ongoing injury to the patella tendon in his left knee.”
He was limping at times during the title run, but it didn’t matter. He averaged 30.5 points and 9.1 rebounds in the postseason, with his 732 points in last year’s playoffs ranking third all-time. In the biggest times, he came up the biggest. He scored 15 points in the fourth quarter to carry Toronto past Milwaukee in the series-turning Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, and he had 17 points in the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors to put the Raptors on the cusp of the crown.
And, of course, he made “The Shot.” Leonard’s jumper from the corner at the buzzer bounced four times on the rim before falling through to beat the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of a second-round series.
Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard dunks during the first half of last Saturday’s game against the host San Antonio Spurs. / AP photo by Darren AbateNick Nurse’s first season as an NBA head coach ended with a championship parade.
“Without a doubt, the best thing about this thing is that somehow I wound up on the sideline getting to watch this guy play up close,” Nurse said during the playoff run.
Leonard’s “I’m a fun guy” quote that he offered on his arrival in Toronto became a meme and a marketing slogan during the postseason. So did his “board man gets paid” line. And after the Raptors won the title, Serge Ibaka’s video of Leonard went viral – they were in the back seat of a car on the way to the parade when Ibaka teed him up for the next unforgettable saying.
“Fun Guy, what’s up baby?” Ibaka asked.
The answer – a question, actually – was classic Leonard.
“What it do, baby?”
Short, sweet, to the point.
“I’m playing to have fun and try to be the best player I can be,” Leonard said. “I’m happy with myself and what I have done in my career, and I’m just going to keep on from there. It’s not about me being famous or wanting to have more fame than those guys. It’s about me playing basketball and having fun on the floor.”