Kawhi Leonard is a foreboding figure, unless he’s with you.
How do other players respond to his implacable, menacing calm? “I’m not sure,” he says. “I don’t think about what they’re thinking.”
How does he respond to trash talk from other players? “It really doesn’t happen too much,” he says. “I really can’t say it happens.”
For all the noise and stars and currents rocketing around the NBA Finals, it is still centred on Kawhi. In Game 1, the Golden State Warriors threw body after body at him, trying to make anyone else beat them. They used a defence Raptors coach Nick Nurse had never seen them use, and Kawhi had his second-lowest usage number of the playoffs, behind a blowout of Orlando where he scored 27 points on 11 shots.