Many Raptors fans hoped Kawhi Leonard would use yesterday’s championship parade to declare his plan to re-sign with Toronto.
They got a laugh and not much else.
But they can be heartened – or maybe eventually heartbroken – by this: Stars almost never switched teams immediately following a title.
Before this year, there have been…
- 49 Finals MVPs who won a championship. None switched teams that offseason.
- 147 All-Stars who won a championship. None switched teams that offseason.
- 124 All-NBA players who won a championship. Only one switched teams that offseason.
In 1998, Scottie Pippen got signed-and-traded from the Bulls to the Rockets. He was neither an All-Star nor Finals MVP that year, but he made the All-NBA third team. After leaving Chicago, he never achieved any of those accolades.
Leonard checked all three boxes this season – Finals MVP, All-NBA, All-Star. He looks poised to take over as the NBA’s best player for the next few several years.
It’d be unprecedented for someone like him to bolt.
The most productive player to leave a championship team immediately after winning a title? It might be Tyson Chandler, who posted 9.4 win shares for the 2011 Mavericks then got signed-and-traded to the Knicks.
Even while missing 22 games amid load management and minor injury, Leonard posted 9.5 win shares last season.
Here’s how Leonard compares to the players with the most win shares in a title-winning season who began play elsewhere the following year:
Of course, Leonard isn’t bound by history. He’ll make his own decision. If he wants to leave the Raptors for the Clippers, Knicks or anyone else, he can.
But players just usually stick with a champion. LeBron James said he might have re-signed with the Heat if they won the 2014 title. Kyrie Irving was unhappy after the Cavaliers’ 2016 championship but didn’t request a trade until they lost in the 2017 NBA Finals. Shaq and Kobe coexisted peacefully enough until the Lakers stopped winning titles.
It’s just hard to leave a team that has proven its ability to win a championship, and Leonard would have that in Toronto.
