As Kawhi returns to hero's welcome, don't forget what Raps, Toronto did for him
There's a commercial running on Canadian television this season that begins by asking what basketball means to Canada, before flipping the script and instead showing viewers what Canada has meant to the game of basketball.
That commercial begins with the four seconds of anticipation that preceded Kawhi Leonard's iconic Game 7 buzzer-beater, which sent the Toronto Raptors to the Eastern Conference finals as part of their run to an NBA title.
It's fitting, then, that as Leonard prepares to make his first visit back to Toronto on Wednesday as a member of the Los Angeles Clippers, many around the game are reminiscing about what Leonard did for the Raptors - and what he meant to Canada - without stopping to consider what the team, the city, and the country did for him.
Leonard brought a level of relevance and confidence to an organization, and to a burgeoning basketball hotbed, that so desperately craved those things. He delivered the ultimate prize in North America's most championship-exclusive league, helping the Raptors become just the 12th franchise to win an NBA title over the last 40 years.
Leonard's Raptors shattered every ounce of doubt the team's name used to evoke. But the Raptors helped Leonard, too.
It's easy to forget now, but when Leonard landed in Toronto last July, it was more than his desire to play north of the border that was being questioned. It was his health - and whether he could ever regain his MVP-caliber form - and his intractability as a perceived malcontent for engineering his way out of San Antonio.
Leonard rebuilt every facet of that image in Toronto.
Load management entered the everyday NBA lexicon, as the Raptors' director of sports science, Alex McKechnie, oversaw a year-long maintenance program that limited Leonard to just 60 regular-season games and allowed him to save his best for April, May, and June. The organizational depth assembled by Masai Ujiri and his staff allowed Leonard to take 22 games off during the regular season without his team missing a beat. With more freedom in Nick Nurse's offense, Leonard averaged a career-high 26.6 points per contest.
Leonard delivered time and again for the Raptors, and put together a postseason performance for the ages - even on one leg as the playoffs deepened - to help pull Toronto to the finish line. But don't discount what a perfectly blended mix of veteran talent and up-and-coming young stars did for Leonard.
Kyle Lowry's desire, Pascal Siakam's star turn, Marc Gasol's defensive dominance and playmaking savvy, Fred VanVleet's timely shot-making, Serge Ibaka's bursts of energy and rim protection - Leonard was the fulcrum, but Toronto's supporting cast did its part to ensure his postseason masterpiece wasn't written in vain.
The championship Leonard delivered made it easier for Torontonians to believe in themselves and their city, as Ujiri had implored them to do at Leonard's introductory press conference. In that sense, Leonard's excellence, and his quiet, unwavering confidence, helped Canadian sports fans find themselves and their voice.
Leonard may still be the no-nonsense man of few words NBA fans have come to expect, but looking back on his year in Toronto, it feels like he found a bit of himself, too - more of his own voice - becoming a more marketable star in the process.
It started with that unforgettable laugh at media day, and ended with a self-parody of that laugh at what Leonard would later describe as "the best parade ever." He revealed more of himself than ever before in an honest, endearing interview on Ibaka's YouTube cooking show while sampling a pizza topped with bull penis.
He soaked up the adulation at Niagara Falls, made a dramatic post-championship entrance at a Blue Jays game, and asked, "What it do, baby?" before he ever asked for Clippers fans' attention with a "Hey, hey, hey."
Leonard may have always been a fun guy, but he didn't become the Fun Guy™ until Toronto, establishing himself as the face of New Balance basketball, which wisely marketed Leonard as a Canadian folk hero.
Canada made Leonard the King of the North and expected nothing in return after the championship, which seemed to resonate with the two-time Finals MVP.
"Even after me signing with the Clippers, you know, Canadians came up to me when I was in America, or vice versa when I was up there, they said thank you for everything I've done," Leonard reflected after being cheered during an October preseason game in Vancouver, British Columbia. "They're very nice people."
Months earlier, at a championship parade that paralyzed Toronto's downtown core, Leonard expressed similar gratitude.
"I just want to say thank y'all for welcoming me here after the trade with open arms, man," Leonard said on that June afternoon. "It made my experience that much better. This group of guys let me do what I do on the floor. Coach Nick let me do what I do. And now we've got a championship."
Leonard needed only one year to change the Raptors forever and to leave an indelible mark on Canada's collective memory, its sports landscape, and its cultural identity. But don't discount the mark the city, the country, its beloved basketball team, and the club's rabid fan base, left on Leonard.
At the very time he began flexing his self-determination, Leonard landed in a place that gave him the space to reveal himself off the court, a team to maximize his abilities on it, and a starving, adoring fan base that offered him a throne to call his own.
Joseph Casciaro is theScore's senior basketball writer