Toronto Raptors: Kawhi Leonard choosing the Clippers a heartbreaking conclusion

After a year of holding out for hope, Toronto Raptors fans got the news they didn’t want to see as Kawhi Leonard chooses to go home to play for the Los Angeles Clippers.

If you woke up Saturday morning like I did to the news of Kawhi Leonard deciding to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers rather than return to the Toronto Raptors, you were probably disappointed.

For almost an entire year insiders, team officials and fans were left guessing as to where Leonard would end up the upcoming season and no one could have predicted this conclusion.

Give Leonard’s camp a lot of credit, nobody envisioned a scenario where Paul George would accompany Kawhi to LA with the hopes of leading another team to their first NBA title. They didn’t leak any of this and didn’t give anyone any false hope.

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Raptors fans have every right to be heartbroken and disappointed by how this ended but at least he delivered memories worth savouring rather than other stars who gave up on Toronto without giving anything in return.

Every championship team deserves the chance to run it back again and with Leonard leaving the chances are slim. That is the most disappointing part because he was the piece that made it all possible and now Masai Ujiri has to make a tough decision which we will discuss later.

Losing Danny Green is also another tough blow too but everyone knew his decision was linked to Kawhi’s and at least the Raptors aren’t tied to his contract but they still have to figure out what will be the next considering they have Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka for another season.

Give the Clippers credit, they could not pull this off without trading for George and could have lost the chance to sign Kawhi. At least he didn’t choose to form the super team with the Lakers like most media members in the U.S. wanted.

Toronto might have lost a superstar player, arguably the best if not the most impactful player in franchise history but nobody can take away the fact that they are the reigning NBA champions.

While it doesn’t ease the sting, at least Raptors fans don’t have to live with the stress of wondering what Kawhi’s decision will be any more. Just like he did with Toronto, Leonard is going to give another chance for a franchise to experience their first title win, albeit with no guarantees, but we know he can deliver.

It would have been nice, however, if the story didn’t break at 1:53 a.m. EST.