“Kawhi Leonard has more FMVPs than Stephen Curry but lesser career points than Jeff Green”: NBA Twitter is in a dilemma of where to rank The Claw on All-Time list

Akash Murty | 22/08/2022
“Kawhi Leonard has more FMVPs than Stephen Curry but lesser career points than Jeff Green”: NBA Twitter is in a dilemma of where to rank The Claw on All-Time list

Kawhi Leonard is without question one of the best players to ever dribble a basketball but where does he stand on the all-time list?

In his 11-year NBA career, just 5 times Leonard has played 60-plus games in a season and has gathered 5 All-Star, 5 All-NBA, and 7 All-Defensive Team selections.

For helping the 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs win the NBA title against the defending champions Miami Heat and playing tremendous defense on LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, Leonard also picked up his first Finals MVP just in his 3rd year in the league.

The man also led a Toronto Raptors team to Championship in his one-year stay with the club with just one other All-Star in Kyle Lowry. That too against Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green-led Warriors. Injured, half of them might have been, but that led to Kawhi being considered among the Top-3 players league wide.

When fit and healthy The Claw is arguably the best player on the hardwood. His insanely underrated jumpers and highly accurate layups alongside his famous dogged defense make Kawhi the most important player on the court, even if he’s playing LeBron James’ Lakers or Curry’s Warriors.

So, where does it get him on the all-time list?

Also read: Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were two of the winningest players in the NBA until The Terminator showed up

 

Jeff Green and Richard Jefferson have better career numbers than Kawhi Leonard

The Terminator can be a problem for anyone on the court, and that’s barring nobody in the entire NBA. Irrespective of size. But in his decade-long career in the league, the 15th overall pick of the 2011 Draft class has just scored over 11,800 points and well under 4000 rebounds and 2000 assists.

Putting that in perspective, even Richard Jefferson, Jeff Green, and many other players who never even got an All-Star selection but have/had longer NBA careers have better numbers than the current Clippers superstar.

Safe to say, Leonard, got his much-deserved selection into NBA’s Top-75 team last year. But if we think about where to rank him on the all-time list, he wouldn’t crack Top-20 or even 30 to be fair with everyone else who gave their everything to basketball.

And if you ask Leonard about it, he might not care about this slightly. He’d prefer to manage his load to be fit and win more championships for his teams than climbing up some ranking. He might even laugh it off. Good luck for forgetting it, if he did.

Also read: LeBron James’ 15-year-old Bryce James receives first D1 offer from the Dukes

Post Edited By: Akash Murty
Jeff Green Kawhi Leonard NBA Twitter Stephen Curry

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

Don’t miss these