BIOGRAPHY
Kawhi Leonard was born on June 29, 1991, in Los Angeles, California. He is a small forward in the NBA.
Leonard attended Canyon Springs High School in Moreno Valley, California, before transferring to Martin Luther King High School his junior year. In Leonard's senior year, he and Tony Snell led the King High Wolves to a 30–3 record. Leonard averaged 22.6 points, 13.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 3.0 blocks per game that year and won California Mr. Basketball.
Considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Leonard was listed as the No. 8 small forward and the No. 48 player in the nation in 2009.
As a freshman at San Diego State University in 2009–10, Leonard averaged 12.7 points and 9.9 rebounds per game for the Aztecs. He helped lead the Aztecs to a 25–9 record and the Mountain West Conference (MWC) tournament title. SDSU received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament but lost to Tennessee 62–59 in the first round, with Leonard recording 12 points and 10 rebounds. He led the MWC in rebounding and was named MWC freshman of the year, first team All-MWC, and the 2010 MWC Tournament MVP.
In Leonard's sophomore season, he averaged 15.7 points and 10.4 rebounds as the Aztecs finished with a 34–3 record and won back-to-back conference tournament championships. Leonard and San Diego State would once again make the NCAA tournament. This time, SDSU would advance to the Sweet 16 where they lost to eventual national champion UConn. Leonard was named to the Second Team All-America and would forgo his final two seasons at San Diego State to enter the 2011 NBA draft.
Leonard was selected with the 15th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers but was traded that night to the San Antonio Spurs along with the rights to Erazem Lorbek and Dāvis Bertāns in exchange for George Hill. On December 10, 2011, following the conclusion of the NBA lockout, he signed a multi-year deal with the Spurs.
At season's end, Leonard placed fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and was named to the 2012 NBA All-Rookie First Team.
In the summer of 2012, Leonard was among several NBA up-and-comers chosen to play for the 2012 USA men's basketball Select Team. They trained with the Olympic team which featured Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, and others.
The Spurs and the Miami Heat met once again in the NBA Finals. On June 10, 2014, in Game 3 of the series, Leonard scored a then career-high 29 points in a 111–92 victory. San Antonio went on to win the series 4–1. Leonard averaged 17.8 points on 61% shooting and was named NBA Finals MVP. He was the third-youngest player to win the award (22 years and 351 days), behind only Magic Johnson, who won in both 1980 (20 years and 278 days) and 1982 (22 years and 298 days). Leonard was also only the sixth player, and the first since Chauncey Billups in 2004, to win Finals MVP in a season in which they were not an All-Star.
On April 23, Leonard was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, joining Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players to win both NBA Defensive Player of the Year and NBA Finals MVP. The next day, he scored a playoff career-high 32 points in a Game 3 first-round playoff series victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
In 2018 on July 18, Leonard and teammate Danny Green were traded to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Pöltl and a protected 2019 first round draft pick. In his debut for the Raptors in their season opener on October 17, Leonard had 24 points and 12 rebounds in a 116–104 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In the deciding Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Leonard hit a shot from the corner at the buzzer that bounced off the rim four times before falling to give the Raptors a 92–90 victory over the 76ers to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. In Game 6 of the Finals, he scored 22 points in a 114–110 win to help lift the Raptors to a 4–2 series victory in claiming his second NBA championship. He was subsequently named NBA Finals MVP for the second time, becoming just the third Finals MVP to have won the award with two teams, joining LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Leonard scored 732 points during the 2019 playoffs, passing both Allen Iverson (723) and Hakeem Olajuwon (725) during Game 6 of the NBA Finals to set the third-best scoring total for a single NBA postseason in league history, behind only LeBron James (748, 2018) and Michael Jordan (759, 1992).
Leonard signed a 3-year extension with the Clippers during the 2023-2024 season.
