IF KAWHI WANTS TO WIN, THERE’S NO REASON TO LEAVE
Raptors star in perfect environment to battle for championships for years to come
Draymond Green wasn’t talking directly to Kawhi Leonard, but it sure sounded like he was passing on advice, even if it wasn’t intended that way.
He was talking about winning, and what it takes to win, and why winning matters, and why everybody gets paid when you win — the important people, anyhow — and why team takes precedence over anything personal.
“I’m not going to sit here and say money doesn’t matter or accolades doesn’t matter,” said the fascinating and outspoken Golden State forward. “Who doesn’t want those things?
“But I think what we have done a great job of is putting the No. 1 goal ahead of all that. We have been successful and we have been reaching that No. 1 goal. And it’s been paying off for everybody.
“It started with me in 2015. We won a championship, I got my contract. And then it went to Steph (Curry) and Andre (Iguodala) and Klay (Thompson) even before me and Kevin (Durant). When you reach the No. 1 goal, which we have been able to accomplish, all those things then seem to take care of themselves.”
It makes you wonder about Leonard’s first and possibly last season with the Toronto Raptors. Why would he ever want to leave after all that has happened here? The Raptors are playing for the NBA championship. They lead 1-0 in the series. Leonard, who has been magnificent in the playoffs, didn’t have to be magnificent in the Game 1 victory.
He is surrounded by winners. Pascal Siakam dominated Green, who recently called himself the best defender in the world. Marc Gasol made shots. Fred VanVleet has grown a foot since his partner gave birth a few weeks ago. Danny Green, Leonard’s old teammate and soon-to-be broadcaster, was hitting shots. Kyle Lowry was taking charges. The team was being the best version of the team, and in Game 1 Leonard didn’t have to be the difference maker.
There is more than something to Green’s thoughts about what it takes to win. And why winning probably matters to athletes who are going to be paid anyhow more than anything else. You want to be in an environment where winning is possible. You want to play for a coach you understand and one that understands you. You want to be surrounded by players who are motivated to succeed as much as you’re motivated.
“I think so many times you see people struggle to put those team goals ahead of their personal goals, thinking their personal goals are going to take a back seat,” the Warriors’ Green said. “But if you put the team goals ahead of that, it pulls your personal goals right along with it. I think we have been able to do that.”
I can understand Leonard wanting to leave if this isn’t where he wants to live. I could even understand it if his Game 7 shot hadn’t dropped and the Raptors had lost in overtime in Round 2 to Philadelphia. He is desperately motivated by success, by winning.
But here he is, in the NBA Finals, up a game on the greatest team in modern history, and who knows what happens Sunday, who knows what happens when Kawhi has a Kawhi kind of night? What happened in Game 1, in Scotiabank Arena, outside the arena, across the country, frankly, is like nothing I’ve ever seen.
The Warriors, to a man, have acknowledged that. The erudite Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he’s never heard more noise, albeit polite noise, from the Scotiabank crowd. That isn’t something that is planned for and built around. It just happens. Sporting osmosis: This is normally a city of relatively tame sporting crowds, quiet and polite and almost theatre-like. But what’s grown here this season is beyond any comparison.
Which begs the question: Why would Leonard want to leave?
If it’s only about weather and California, the Raptors have no chance. They can’t win that fight. But if you measure basketball life on the Draymond Green scale, staying in Toronto, with a winner, surrounded by winners, in a basketball-crazed environment, makes perfect sense for Leonard.
It’s not Green’s place to worry about where Leonard plays next season. It’s his place to worry about winning Game 2.
“We know what each of us are capable of and we hold ourselves to a higher standard than most people . ... So when we feel we’re falling short of that, we’re not afraid to say it,” Green said. “And I think that’s important in a championship culture, to be able to self-regulate. You don’t always need the coach to tell you something. You don’t always need teammates to tell you something. You have to know that within yourself and you present that and you do something about it.”
With shorter sentences and less verbal energy, sounds more than a little bit like Leonard.