Kawhi Leonard’s one-year stint with the Toronto Raptors in 2019 resulted in them winning their first and only championship in franchise history.
For that reason alone, the Raptors will probably end up retiring Leonard’s number when it’s all said and done, even if team president Masai Ujiri was salty enough about his departure to go to the lengths of seeking out revenge on him.
This week former Raptor, current Miami Heat star Kyle Lowry opened up about his experience playing alongside Leonard. He got brutally honest in the process.
During a conversation with CJ McCollum on his Pull Up podcast, Lowry suggested that Leonard’s selfish attitude wasn’t well regarded by some – but that he was fine with it.
“Kawhi rubbed people the wrong way because of how he operates, he’s like,’ yo, yo, give me the ball. I’m gonna get it done.’” Lowry said. “You might be like ‘Kawhi, I’m open’. But he was like ‘I’m gonna get this bucket.’ You understand that he’s the best basketball player on your team. And you got to make sure your big dog gotta eat, you know what I’m saying? Big dog gotta eat at the end of the day.”
For Lowry, the ends justified the means when it came to Leonard.
“We’ll give you the ball, you do your thing,” he continued. “We win games? We all good. So the personality I didn’t take it [personally]… my role just changed from the year before. My scoring went down, but my assists went way up. Whatever happens to me, I don’t care. As long as we win.”
Leonard has been described by some around the league as the most selfish star in the NBA. As such, Lowry’s statements don’t come as much of a surprise. That said, it’s always interesting to hear varying perspectives on players. And given how closed off Leonard typically is, he’s harder to get a read on than most.
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