The practice session at Viejas Arena was kept secret from the public because Kawhi Leonard didn't want anybody to know he was there. At the time, he was basically an NBA player without a team. A superstar whose powers were useless because of an injury. Only the San Antonio Spurs didn't seem to see it that way. They thought Kawhi should be playing for them.
Kawhi, though, wasn't ready. So he spent his hours, his days, getting ready. For this particular hour, on this particular day, the former San Diego State Aztec practiced only one thing: his jab step. For an hour. You read that right. He held a basketball in his hands, stood out on the perimeter, 20 feet from the basket and practiced jab-stepping with his right foot. Then his left foot. Then the right. And on and on and on. No shots were taken, this was all about working on a move that could fake out defenders.
Last night, there was Kawhi Leonard, in one of the biggest games of his life, using his jab step to move the NBA's supposed Most Valuable Player, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, back just enough so that he could trigger a three-point shot that would put his Toronto Raptors ahead to stay in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. It was just a moment during a tour de force performance that saw Leonard -- basically playing on one healthy leg -- score 35 points, dish out nine assists and grab seven rebounds to lead Toronto to within one game of its first-ever NBA Finals.
But it was a moment that brought everything full circle. It explained exactly why it's Kawhi who is one of the greatest Aztecs of them all.
Prior to Kawhi Leonard's arrival at SDSU, and then eventually the NBA, the best basketball player to develop his game on the Montezuma Mesa was a power forward from West Memphis, Ark., named Michael Cage. Pretty fair country player that Michael Cage. In fact, during a very solid 15-year career in the Association, mostly with the Los Angeles Clippers and Seattle Supersonics, Cage grabbed 8,646 rebounds, once leading the league with a 13.0 average during the 1987-88 season. That season, he needed 28 boards in his final game of the season to grab the rebounding title away from Chicago's Charles Oakley. He pulled down 30. Strong as an ox, and built like a truck, Cage four times played in all 82 NBA games for a season, to lead the league in that category.
As good as he was, though, he never accomplished the things that Leonard is accomplishing. Kawhi burst on the SDSU scene out of Riverside, recruited brilliantly and tirelessly by Steve Fisher and Brian Dutcher. A string bean of a kid with huge hands, Leonard had great athleticism, but not a whole lot of refinement to his game. The kid could barely ever make a jump shot beyond six or seven feet. But his slick moves and work ethic combined to lift the Aztecs to new heights, culminating with a trip to the Sweet 16 after the 2011 season.
(It's not my favorite memory, what with UConn's Kemba Walker faking a fall to draw a technical foul on the Aztecs' Jamaal Franklin and turning the game completely around late in the second half. UConn would go on to win that game and eventually the NCAA title that year. So I'm still pretty ticked about all of it).
Kawhi, though, was just getting started. Soon thereafter, he was drafted by the Indiana Pacers, who were fleeced by the Spurs in a draft day trade. Before you knew it, Kawhi was in the gym working harder than anybody and turning himself into a star. A kid that couldn't make even 25% of his three-point shots in college all of a sudden was up over 40% in the NBA. And soon the Spurs would be champs again, and by out-playing the greatest player of this era, LeBron James, Kawhi would earn MVP honors in the Finals as San Antonio upset James' Miami Heat.
Now, he might just be able to pull it off again. He has easily out-shined Antetokounmpo in the East Finals to this point and now has the Raptors on the cusp of a trip to the Finals. The great Golden State Warriors will be waiting, but don't put it past this kid to pull off a championship effort once again.
One thing we know for sure: he'll work harder than anybody trying to accomplish it.