Some people will tell you Kawhi Leonard was built in a lab; that for his first three years in San Antonio he would do drills, endless drills, with coaches on his own, but would be told, if you try this in a game, we will bench your ass. It helped explain why, when he got a bigger role, he seemed something close to fully formed. By the time he got to Toronto, Kawhi was a superstar.On Sunday night, at the very end of a draining, punishing Game 7, at the end of a hard, physical series, Kawhi was dribbling hard towards the right corner of the floor, and everyone in the building was looking at him, and seven-foot Goliath Joel Embiid was chasing him, and Kawhi sent the ball up. Tie game. Time gone. It hung in the air. Nicholas Carter was working the Mother’s Day shift at Cava restaurant in midtown, and as a patron went to pay, he was streaming the game, and people stopped to watch. The chef was, too. He told the chef, “If they win, you pretend to accidentally break a glass.” And as it happened, another server walked through the swinging doors to the kitchen and ran into a stationary worker, watching the game on a phone. A platter of plates clattered to the floor. The chef poked his head out and said, dryly, “The Raptors won.”One thing about Kawhi: He works. He hits the weight room every day, and in this series Jimmy Butler was telling people Kawhi might be the strongest player in the entire league. He works on his shot every day: on off days, on mornings of games when they don’t shootaround, all the time. “Every freaking day,” said one Raptors staffer. “He’s like an Army officer.” When asked about the shot, Kawhi said, “Ended up finding a spot that I like, that I work on. Ended up getting to the spot.”Raptors staff confirm he has been seen working on that shot, among all the others: a running, pull-up fade from the right corner. He can take those shots without getting benched now. But heR ...
|
