Now it begins.
The waiting and the wondering and the anxiety about where Kawhi Leonard will play next season ramps up today, and it was less than a week ago that Masai Ujiri stood in the champagne-drenched locker room of Oracle Arena and chatted about it.
The Toronto Raptors had been NBA champions for about an hour, and of course the hot-take moment was about Leonard’s future. Would he stay after one memorable season? Could the Raptors leverage a championship to convince him to stay? How would they make that ultimate moment a part of their sales pitch?