With the NBA free agency opening at 6pm Sunday, Toronto Raptors fans are a little edgy.
They’re wondering if the superstar that lead the team to its first NBA championship will stay in Toronto, of if he’ll go west, and sign with the Los Angeles Clippers, or the Los Angeles Lakers.
John Canasanay drove for 18 hours from Halifax to be in Toronto, and pick up some Raptors gear at the teams official merchandise store, Real Sports Apparel, inside Scotiabank Arena. He’s one of the few fans confident that Kawhi’s coming back.
“I think we have a pretty good chance to get him back in Toronto,” adding, “We’re the best team in the world, world champions. And we offered him everything that other teams couldn’t give him.”
As fans search for anything with Leonard’s name on it, they think about what he’s meant to the team. Andrew Ciuffreda of Oakville says.
“He’s brought us the one thing you want in the NBA, you want a championship, right,” Andrew Ciuffreda of Oakville says. “And we got that. So you hope he comes back, but you wish him the best no matter what happens.”
That sentiment was echoed by his friend, Stefano Hilario.
“I think it’s pretty close, I’d say he goes to L.A. or come here. It’s going to be down to that at the end of the day I think.”
Inside the buzzing SportsCentre newsroom in Scarborough, TSN’s Raptors reporter Josh Lewenberg is working his phone, seeing if he can gain any insight into Kawhi’s big decision.
“This is a franchise altering decision for several franchises. But this is a big personal decision for him as well. It’s a life changing decision,” Lewenberg said.
Financially the Raptors can offer Kawhi the most money, a five-year contract valued at $190-million. But what the team can’t offer Leonard, is the chance to play close to his home of Los Angeles.
And while the west coast is where the latest rumblings about Leonard are coming from, Lewenberg says we should keep it all in perspective.
“The perception, I think for a lot of people, is that things have changed a whole lot over the last few days, and that maybe the Raptors are falling behind in the race, or that the Lakers or the Clippers are ahead. But it’s all just a product of where the information is coming from, because the Raptors aren’t leaking anything, Kawhi’s camp isn’t leaking anything.”
Bottom line, until we hear from Kawhi, none of us will really know what he’s decided.
