“Kawhi Leonard was smiling like a mad man after dapping up his favorite player at NBA75”: Allen Iverson shows love to ‘The Klaw’ at All-Star weekend

Kawhi Leonard meets his favorite NBA player of all time, Allen Iverson, at NBA75 celebrations and couldn’t help but smile. 

Aside from the facts that Kawhi Leonard and Allen Iverson have cornrows, the two NBA75 legends don’t have much in common. Sure, they’re both two of the 75 greatest players to have ever played the game of basketball but aside from that, barely share anything in terms of playstyle. 

Allen Iverson was an offense-first, undersized guard who used his speed to drop 30 a night. While he was a 3x steals champ, getting matched up against Iverson wasn’t exactly the ‘nail in the coffin’ for opposing guards.

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Kawhi Leonard on the other hand, stared off as a role playing, defensive savant who has refined his game into becoming one of the best offensive players in the league. Unlike AI, Kawhi plays at his own, bogged down pace. 

Despite the fact that the 2x champ’s play doesn’t resemble the Sixers legend’s, Kawhi has admitted on several occasions that AI is his favorite players. 

Kawhi Leonard meets Allen Iverson at NBA75. 

“Just his gameplay, how hard he played and that’s pretty much it. He played both ends, off the ball, getting steals. You know with that team, the Sixers, bringing them to the Finals and just carrying them by himself. That just resonated to me just how hard he played and his will to not give up,” said Kawhi Leonard about AI.

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Fast-forward a year from this quote being released and the two NBA legends dapped each other up at this past weekend’s All-Star Sunday. 

While the meme surrounding Leonard’s lack of enthusiasm towards anything is hilarious at times, it is indeed rooted in truth. The 2x Finals MVP does not smile all too much when in the public eye so to see him cheesing while chopping it up with his childhood idol was quite special to see, to say the least.

Kawhi Leonard once told me that Allen Iverson was his favorite player growing up. I love this photo of him and AI.

📷: @Jim_ICE pic.twitter.com/fxJyjCkSrP

— Farbod Esnaashari (@Farbod_E) February 21, 2022