Kawhi wins MVP, becomes 1st player to win Finals MVP in both conferences
Five years ago, he slayed a giant when he won Finals MVP in leading the San Antonio Spurs over the two-time champ Miami Heat. On Thursday night, Kawhi Leonard became a superteam killer again when he finished off the Golden State Warriors’ two-year run as champions and again earned the Bill Russell Trophy.
The Toronto Raptors star capped an historic postseason by reaching an historic achievement: the first player in history to win Finals MVP with teams from both conferences. Leonard earned the honor following the Raptors’ 114-110 Game 6 victory to close out a 4-2 series win.
Leonard averaged 28.5 points per game on 43 percent shooting in the Finals, but he had probably his least impact in the clincher, scoring 22 points with six rebounds on a night when he got great help from his supporting cast.
But if there were an award to honor the best player of the entire postseason, Leonard would’ve likely captured that as well as he led everyone in points, rebounds and steals over the last two months. He’s the first player to do that since Larry Bird in 1984.
Leonard won his first Finals MVP in 2014 with the San Antonio Spurs, a series in which he averaged 17.4 points and 6.2 rebounds and won the honor largely for his defense on James.
This performance was even more dominating, especially in Games 3 and 4 at Golden State when he delivered back-to-back power performances the enabled the Raptors to take control of the series. His 15-point third quarter in Game 3 got the Raptors leverage to take the lead in the series. Then his 17-point third quarter in Game 4 was perhaps the most command performance of the playoffs.
In Game 5, he scored 10 points in a two-minute span in the fourth quarter that nearly was the exclamation point on the title before the Warriors late run to take the game.
The lists Leonard joins with this performance are the elite of the elite. He’s just the third player to win the Russell Trophy with two teams, the others being Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Bucks and Lakers) and LeBron James (Cavs and Heat). He’s the fourth player to win Finals MVP in his first season with a team, joining Magic Johnson with the Lakers in 1980, Moses Malone with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983 and Kevin Durant with the Warriors in 2017.
Leonard scored 732 points in the postseason, third-most in NBA history behind Michael Jordan (759 in 1992) and LeBron James (748 in 2018).
Leonard will now turn his focus toward free agency. He has until June 26 to exercise a $21.3 million player option for next season, which is expected to decline and become an unrestricted free agent on June 30.
A maximum contract for Leonard with the Raptors would be $190 million over five years. If he were to sign with another team, he could sign for $140 million over four years. He would also have the options to sign shorter-term deals. Because he has eight years of experience, one strategy would be to return to free agency on 2021 when, as a 10-year free agent, he could sign for significantly more.
No matter what Leonard chooses, next season his max salary would start at roughly $33 million, which explains why he’d opt out of his deal no matter his team preference.
