Kawhi's potential departure won't define the Raptors - or the city of Toronto
TORONTO - Although Kawhi Leonard's tenure with the Toronto Raptors officially just began, the media is already searching for answers regarding his future.
"I came here with an open mind," Leonard replied to reporters on Monday.
What exactly does he know about Toronto?
"A great city that loves basketball," he said.
Asked whether he views Toronto as a long-term commitment, Leonard called it a day-to-day process.
The questions continued: How are the Raptors selling themselves as an organization? How must the perception of Toronto as an NBA city change for more players to want to come here? By the end of the news conference, Raptors president Masai Ujiri, seated next to Leonard, had heard enough.
"The narrative of not wanting to come to this city is gone," Ujiri said. "That's old and we should move past that. Believe in this city. Believe in yourselves ... It's our job here to bring these players in and sell (the city) to the players. But we're proud of who we are."
Later, as he scrummed with reporters, Ujiri expanded on his frustration with the existing narrative.
"We're tired of that crap," he said. "Let's focus on something else. Hopefully we're a winning team. We have been the last few years. We can grow from that and continue to sell that. We have the best fans in the NBA. I don’t care what anybody says, at least top three in the NBA, great city. We have nothing to apologize about. What’s there to be ashamed about. This is a beautiful city. We are blessed to be one of the NBA teams, one that’s not in America. I can’t believe a beautiful city like this would not believe in itself."
The inferiority underlying the line of questioning is nothing new. But, while Leonard's future will be a tantalizing yearlong storyline, whether or not he decides to stay in Toronto won't define the Raptors as a franchise, or Toronto as a sports city.
To turn Leonard's decision into a referendum on Toronto as a city to avoid would be doing a disservice to everything Ujiri has built during his five years here. The president of the Raptors has always been a dreamer. He went from an international scout to the first non-American to be named NBA Executive of the Year. As director of NBA's Basketball Without Borders Africa program, he has continued to impact the lives of the youth in Nigeria and around the world.
Over his five years in Toronto, Ujiri inherited a franchise languishing in mediocrity and pushed it to new heights. The Raptors are now one of the most respected organizations in the league and, despite their playoff shortcomings, have built a consistent winning culture that failed to exist before.
There are people who would be satisfied with this level of success - but not Ujiri. And so, after another playoff disappointment, he fired the Coach of the Year and traded the face of the franchise with one goal in mind: to win a championship. Ujiri is dreaming big, acquiring a superstar while accepting the fact the player might leave in a year.
But Ujiri reiterated a key point Monday: the Raptors are comfortable in their own skin.
"We’re not overselling. This is who we are," Ujiri said. "We’ll treat Kawhi like a superstar just like we treated Kyle (Lowry) or DeMar (DeRozan), just like we treat all our players, with maximum respect ... There is an unbelievable thing here. There’s a gold mine here. Maybe people here can understand that and feel more proud about that.”
Ujiri has positioned the Raptors well for the next phase, whether it is rebuilding with the young core, or having Leonard in the fold long term. He's the exact kind of player that every team craves; the kind of player the Raptors have never been in the conversation for.
This is why Ujiri, who has been trying to lift the confidence of this city as a basketball town since he screamed "F--- Brooklyn" in his first season here, is hoping Toronto and its media and fans will follow his lead and dream bigger, looking beyond Leonard's free-agency decision. And if he's not the superstar that decides to plant his flag in Toronto, Ujiri is betting on finding another player who will want that responsibility.
The best thing you can say about Ujiri's tenure in Toronto is that, while trading for Leonard came with risks, the long-term future of the franchise does not depend on whether he stays. And more importantly, Leonard's potential departure will not make the Raptors a forgotten NBA outpost again, as they were for so many years after Vince Carter was traded away to New Jersey.
At the end of the most anticipated media day in franchise history, it was Leonard, the man of few words, who might have provided the perfect slogan for the 2018-19 season.
"If you look toward the future you're going to trip over the present," he said.