Trash-talk Toronto Raptors: Kyle Lowry wants to fight

Kawhi Leonard: One ring to rule them all, eh?

Kawhi Leonard is finally on his way back to Toronto to get what he deserves: a ring for his one-year rental agreement. The Toronto Raptors’ fans should greet him graciously, unlike the way Kristaps Porzingis was reunited with New York Knicks’ fans.

The crowd has been foretold to get to the arena plenty early, so they can give Kawhi a warm welcome, but perhaps the crowd is the only people who are interested in making things light for Kawhi.

After the Toronto Raptors narrowly beat the Chicago Bulls on Monday, Norman Powell was interviewed after the game for coming through in the clutch to pull out the win. Of course, he was asked about the imminent game against Kawhi and the L.A. Clippers and, as he smiled, he answered that he was “kinda tired of all the Kawhi questions.”

Slightly joking, likely, with that sly smile, he also said that everyone has moved on and after the ring ceremony it’ll be time to play basketball and get a win. Leave it to Norm to speak the truth about things.

Norm is right; the Kawhi questions are getting a little old. Unfortunately for him, so long as the Clippers and the Raptors are good then the comparisons will keep churning, especially early on in the season. With the league pegged as a dynamic duo-led league with numerous title contenders, it is easy to talk about Kawhi spurning the Raptors for a title defense.

I’m sure, however, that it does get exhausting to talk about Kawhi this and Kawhi that, especially given that the team won the title. Sometimes the media makes it seem as if Kawhi played 1-on-5 throughout the playoffs.

All we can hope is that the Kawhi questions are competitive driving forces for winning basketball because like Norman Powell, I, too, am getting a little tired of thinking about Kawhi rather than how well they’re playing so far.