The faces of the Warriors told a story not only of the crumbling moment, but also of the suddenly deteriorating future. The look on Kawhi’s face, on the other hand, betrayed nothing but a sense of calm: He makes changing history look like solitary practice in the gym. In his customarily awkward postgame interview with ESPN’s Doris Burke, Leonard fumbled with the intent of his words: He doesn’t play for the records, he doesn’t play for the fans. The latter statement forced him to pause and stammer, and you could almost hear the creaking conversational gears in his mind grinding themselves to dust trying to make up for how bad that might have sounded to his legion of adoring Raptors fans back in Toronto. But with one more win, those fans will be able to rest easy.
The Board Man Gets Paid in Full