Kawhi Leonard’s legacy is a mixed bag. Although he has an impressive list of achievements, the various injuries he suffered throughout his career has created a grey area that jeopardizes his standing among the greats.
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However, like any professional athlete should, Leonard has utmost confidence in his abilities. Just that, his former teammate, Danny Green, believes there needs to be a limit to how far that confidence goes.
Kawhi is a man of few words, and only a few individuals have gotten to know the Los Angeles Clippers star on a deeper level. Green is one of those people. The two spent eight years together as teammates with the San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors.
Green had front-row seats when Leonard touched impeccable heights. He watched a 22-year-old young star emerge as the future face of the Spurs franchise after winning the 2014 NBA Finals MVP. Five years later, he served as one of Leonard’s running-mates during his iconic 2019 title run with the Raptors.
That sole season in Toronto was the stuff of legends. Leonard reportedly even placed himself among the all-time ranks following that championship. Fred VanVleet recently recalled one comparison Kawhi made, placing himself higher than Kobe Bryant.
“Kawhi changed my view on a lot of s**t, but there was one thing in particular that I overheard,” Fred VanVleet said on the Underground Podcast. “He didn’t say it to me, I just overheard it. And it was a conversation that was being had, and the sentiment of that conversation was when we won the championship, he was like, ‘I’m better than Kobe.'”
Fred VanVleet says Kawhi Leonard believed his 2019 finals fun put him ahead of Kobe
“It was a conversation being had and the sentiment of it was when we won the championship was like ‘I’m better than Kobe.”
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VanVleet’s comments have taken the basketball community by storm since then. It was almost out of character for Leonard, a man of few words, to say something so outlandishly boastful. That comment even caught Green off guard when he first heard it. If his former teammate truly believes that, Green can’t side with him.
“He [Leonard] had a really good run in Toronto, but he would have to do that for 10 years to catch Kobe,” Green said on Byron Scott’s Fast Break.
Green will be the first person to give Kawhi the flowers he deserves. However, he can’t overlook how short-lived Leonard’s prime has been. The two-time NBA champion is still one of the best players in the league, but he just hasn’t been able to play enough games for it to matter.
Since the 2017-18 season, Kawhi has only played over 65 games in a season just once. He has played under 55 games four times. That fact alone leads to there being no comparison to Kobe in Green’s mind.
“Kobe is another guy. He scored 81 in a game. I’ve seen Kobe score 60 in three quarters. Not many people cared about the game like Kobe did,” Green added.
Of course, we can’t be too sure if VanVleet heard it right about what Leonard exactly said. It was not firsthand information for him as well. Green believes VanVleet since they were former teammates, but he wasn’t there to guarantee the validity of such a claim. However, assuming Kawhi did say such a thing, Green wouldn’t hesitate to push back on such a nonsensical statement.
