TORONTO — It’s always special to watch a player receive a ring, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers noted before the Clippers’ 112-92 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, but he’d never quite experienced anything like this: The Finals MVP of a championship team collecting his ring while visiting from another team.
That’s because it had never happened before. Few people would leave what Kawhi Leonard left: a championship team in which he was the clear alpha, in a culture that fit his sensibilities and a rabid, star-starved fanbase that adored him. It was almost perfect, but the modern superstar has the power and prerogative to make his own perfect, and Leonard just wanted to go home.