WE’D LIKE TO THINK KAWHI LEONARD IS BACK AND CONTENDING FOR ANOTHER TITLE
When he’s healthy and leading the Clippers with 39 points, nothing is better in the NBA, even when knee tears have ravaged him and left team owner Steve Ballmer thinking of a miracle in his new arena
The building’s outer skin illuminates lights — red, green and blue — as digital artwork blows out airplane fumes and freeway traffic. It isn’t enough for the Halo Board to be the largest 360-degree electronic powerhouse in any sports arena, with T-shirt cannons also installed to reach every fan. When it’s time to go, 1,100 toilets await in the Intuit Dome. Taunting fans cram into 51 uninterrupted baseline seats.
How many free throws do opponents miss at The Wall? More than 26 percent.
This is Steve Ballmer’s new palace in Inglewood, where he lets kids shoot balls into baskets by the front door. It wasn’t erected by Kawhi Leonard, but who says it’s too late? Load management seemed to finish a spectacular career, such as when I suggested he retire last fall after multiple knee tears and ailments. Suddenly, in a return that almost defies humanity, Leonard looks like the player who won two championships in the 2010s and scored 39 points Monday night.
There is a bigger NBA story in Los Angeles than Luka Doncic, JJ Redick screaming at his players and Anthony Edwards grabbing his groin to mock a Lakers fan, earning a $50,000 fine. That is the other series for now, in a cultural change surrounding a team usually forgotten but now in fortifying sync. Leonard is healthy as a dual-threat demon and brings a possibility that the Clippers, still best known for Donald Sterling and his league-banned racist comments, might challenge for their first title.
“If we have a healthy Kawhi, we can win any series,” coach Tyronn Lue said.
You say no? With Leonard, a revived James Harden, a serious big man in Ivica Zubac, streaks from Norman Powell and Lue in prime form, the Clippers return to the dome tied 1-1 with Denver, ready to use The Wall to drive Nikola Jokic into an offseason with a Yeti. Hearing Leonard, he is fortunate to walk straight. But rather than wonder if his body will survive another night, watch him play. He is brilliant offensively and defensively. For how long? He has played only one set of back-to-back games this season, but in the playoffs, teams have days off. The league is better when he resembles an all-time great.
“I’m just happy that I’m able to move. I’m coming out the game feeling well. That’s what I’m taking my pride on. Just being healthy,” Leonard said. “I sat and watched these playoff games and series for the past two years. So to be able to be frontline out there just feels good for me, no matter which way the game goes. That’s what I’m taking pride in. I just wanna be out there and play and be frontline with my team.”
He is realistic, to the point warriors prefer he not discuss “which way the game goes.” Hasn’t Leonard been consumed by injuries since he left San Antonio? Hobbling through time is his path, yet we always remember the buzzer-beater in Toronto that won Game 7 against Philadelphia, before he led a second team in another country to a 2019 title. He was supposed to do the same when he signed with the Clippers, prompting Ballmer to say, “We’re only here for one reason. We want to win it all.”
Is this the year? Or will he limp off the court again?
“It’s difficult. Anyone in the business that's playing and knows how hard it is to either to come back from injury or just even playing in the NBA, they understand what we all go through, what I go through," Leonard said. “I’m not going to play like I was before. I could be playing better. I can be playing worse. It doesn't matter. I'm just focused on it now. It's a different team in every situation and game, so I'm just taking what's in front of me and playing hard and like I said, having fun and just living with the results.”
His teammates have rallied around him, including Harden. He still wears the same beard but his body — worn from post-MVP inconsistencies and strip-joint visits — is in a meaner place. Imagine if the man joins Leonard in a Finals romp when he couldn’t beat Golden State in Houston, or when he stumbled with Kevin Durant in Brooklyn and left Philadelphia in a daze.
“It's always negative. It's always what he's been through and what he's not able to do just because of something that he can't control,” Harden said of Leonard. “But we don't appreciate how great he is when he's actually out there and putting on performances like this. I feel like that about everybody that's in the league that goes through something that is out of their hands where they can't control. It's like it's always the negative — which is something that we got to live with, I guess, in the world. But as for me, being close to him every single day and seeing the work that he puts in, you appreciate him.”
How long have media and fans been down on Leonard? Years. Last summer, he was prepared to play for Team USA in the Olympics before the Clippers pulled him out of Paris. Did they somehow see what was coming? “His shotmaking ability is elite. And that's the aggressiveness we need from him,” Harden said. “Doesn't matter what's going on, or who's guarding him, he just got to a spot and raised up. He's a big-time player. It's every single day. It's the preparation. It's the treatment, it's the strengthening, you know what I mean, of body and its correctives, and then it's going on court and putting it all together. Luck hasn't been on his side or whatever case you might call it. But he loves to hoop. And as you see, when he's on the court, he's a killer. So I'm glad he's in a good space right now.”
Against the Nuggets, who looked clumsy in Game 2 with new coach David Adelman, Leonard made 12 of his first 13 shots and either scored or assisted on half his team’s points. Was it a blip? Or the new truth? “I know he’s a very level-headed person and he understands things that aren’t under his control and he just controls the controllable. That’s the best attribute about him,” Powell said. “He’s a gifted basketball player, but his mental fortitude and toughness, on and off the floor, all the things he’s been through in his life, everything that he’s been through on the floor, makes him who he is. So, I don’t think it takes away from his love or enjoyment of the game. I think he sees it as another obstacle he’s going to get through and figure it out. He’s always figuring it out.”
Ballmer bought the Clippers from Sterling with billions that weren’t prepared for obstacles. He built the Intuit Dome anyway, giving him his own space after sharing Crypto.com Arena with the Lakers. Paul George left, but Harden has his own ambitions. Here comes Leonard in Year One, giving the city another hope after two World Series victories by the Dodgers and recent titles by the Lakers and Rams.
“This is what Kawhi lives for,” Lue said. “He’s trying to get to this point where he’s healthy for the playoffs. That just shows you what he’s capable of doing. Yeah, I mean, it just says a lot about him, about his dedication to the game. I’ve said he’s a hard worker. But like I said, we’ll continue to keep giving our medical staff a lot of credit. They put him through a lot of stuff and didn’t let him shortcut, checked every box before he came back and he’s been feeling good.’’
Changes in the medical staff impacted why Nico Harrison traded Doncic in Dallas. It’s a credit to Ballmer for remaining cool — always the crazy fan, in the front row — and keeping faith with Leonard for six years. Maybe this is the next Kawhi, reinvigorated.
That’s where we’ll leave the story, until Thursday night. Pray? I will watch.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.