A basketball player celebrates.
Kawhi Leonard celebrates after scoring against the Chicago Bulls in the Toronto Raptors's season-opening win on Wednesday. (Cole Burston/Getty Images)
Opening minute of the first game of Kawhi Leonard’s second stint in Toronto, and Raptors’ prodigal superstar, isolated on the right wing beyond the three-point line, gathered himself to unleash a jump shot. Crowd noise inside a sold-out Scotiabank Arena rose as Leonard elevated and launched the ball toward the hoop with an effortless flick of the right wrist. When the ball dropped softly through the mesh, the audience erupted.
The first regular-season points of Leonard’s Raptors reboot gave the home team an early 5-0 lead en route to a 143-92 beatdown over the Chicago Bulls. And the win represented a promising early return on the club’s most significant transaction since 2018, when they traded for Leonard the first time.
If you’re a sports fan in Toronto, it’s hard not to notice the buzz the Raptors generated by bringing Leonard back to the franchise in the off-season trade that sent Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick (as well as some draft picks) to the Los Angeles Clippers. The arrival of a seven-time all-star and two-time Finals MVP is an instant roster upgrade for a team that reached the first round of last year’s playoffs before losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Last season Leonard averaged a career-best 27.1 points per game, and the prospect of adding that scoring, plus Leonard’s rock-steady defense and lead-by-example mentorship, have some of his Raptors teammates envisioning a deep postseason run next spring.
WATCH | Raptors crush Bulls in season opener:
Toronto Raptors crush Chicago Bulls in season-opening win
The Toronto Raptors have opened their regular season in good fashion, dominating the Chicago Bulls en route to a massive 135 to 92 win Wednesday. Superstar Kawhi Leonard scored 23 points in his regular-season return to Toronto. CBC's Dale Manucdoc breaks down the win.
“We have the highest level of expectation,” said Scottie Barnes, the six-year Raptors veteran and two-time all-star forward during a mid-week media briefing. “We won a championship here, and that’s our expectation every time we step on the floor.”
But on opening night, you could also quantify that optimism.
The daily NBA schedule on ESPN’s website lists the cheapest available ticket to each game, and so it doubles as a barometer for local demand. As of Wednesday afternoon, tickets for Pacers-Pelicans started at $17, while the marquee matchup between the Warriors and Lakers cost at least $97.
And Raptors-Bulls?
Prices started at $108, the highest minimum entry fee of any game on Wednesday’s schedule, and numerical proof that the Leonard-led Raptors, on the first full day of the NBA regular season, were the hottest ticket in the NBA.
Eventually, the crowd would swell to 19,800, but many of those fans were still trickling into the arena when a long bounce pass from Leonard set up R.J. Barrett for the slam dunk that would put Toronto ahead 7-0, force the Bulls to call time out, and remind observers why Leonard’s arrival makes the Raptors a factor in the NBA’s ultra-competitive Atlantic Division, home to the revamped Philadelphia 76ers, and the New York Knicks, last year’s NBA champions. The last time Leonard suited up for Toronto, introduced us to the concept of load management — strategically sitting out regular-season games to safeguard his health for the playoffs — and helped lead the Raptors to the only NBA title in franchise history.
WATCH | Fans abuzz with Leonard's return:
But that was seven seasons and one major knee injury ago.
Where Leonard’s first run with the Raptors coincided with his prime years, he returns at age 35, with a $115 million (all figures US) contract extension that could keep him in Toronto until he turns 37. So if Wednesday’s lopsided win offered a glimpse at what’s possible with balanced offence, seamless team work and a healthy Leonard, the team’s longer-term prospects also depend heavily on whether Leonard’s body holds up as he enters the sports equivalent of senior citizenship.
“You can’t go as hard as you used to, obviously,” Leonard said after Monday’s practice. “You gotta be smart about everything. Recovery — you’re not 20 years old no more, so recovery’s big.”
WATCH | Fans relive Raptors 2019 championship:
Kawhi's return sparks nostalgia and hope as new Raptors season begins
With Kawhi Leonard returning to Toronto seven years after leading the franchise to its first NBA title, Raptors fans across the country are looking back at the 2019 championship run with renewed hope for the season ahead. CBC’s Dale Manucdoc spoke with fans as the Raptors prepare to host the Chicago Bulls Wednesday.
If you think the Raptors can’t repeat the 2018-19 season, you’re correct. Leonard is the only player on the current roster from that championship squad, and even key off-the-court characters have moved on. Nick Nurse, the Raptors coach that year, is in season four with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Raptors division rivals. And former team president Masai Ujiri, the executive behind the trade that first brought Leonard to Toronto, joined the Dallas Mavericks as team president and alternate governor this past May.
But if the circumstances surrounding each of the trades that brought Leonard to Toronto seem similar, you’re not hallucinating.
In 2018 the Raptors sent their top scorer (DeMar DeRozan) and a complementary player (Jakob Poetl) to San Antonio in exchange for Leonard, who, thanks to injuries and a rift with team management that was never fully explained to the public, played just nine games the previous season.
This past June Toronto shipped their top scorer (Brandon Ingram) and a supporting cast member (Gradey Dick), to the Los Angeles Clippers to acquire Leonard, whose endorsement deals in L.A. were central to the salary-cap circumvention drama that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Pablo Torre has painstakingly detailed on his podcast. A subsequent league investigation resulted in a $700,000 fine for Leonard, and cost the Clippers a $30 million fine and five forfeited first-round draft picks, among other penalties.
The probe also kept the trade, first agreed to in June, from becoming official until September.
Both of Leonard’s arrivals in Toronto have followed a bitter split with his previous teams, and in each case he’s been tasked with helping the Raptors shatter a glass ceiling. Eight years ago he helped transform the Raptors from contenders to champions; this season’s mission is to take a first-round playoff team deeper into the postseason.
A basketball player drives the ball.
Leonard drives against Matas Buzelis of the Chicago Bulls during Toronto's season-opening win on Wednesday. (Cole Burston/Getty Images)
But amid the big-picture expectations that accompany Leonard’s return, and the optimism prompted by Wednesday night’s throttling of the Chicago Bulls, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic doesn’t see this season as a simple re-run of 2019. Instead, he says, this iteration of the Raptors will build its own identity, game by game.
“We’re going to prepare one game at a time. We;re going to compete one possession at a time,” said Rajakovic, who guided the Raptors to a 46-36 record last year. “The culmination, the sum of all that is going to be what we achieve as a team this year.
“Every question is about the future, but we’re going to live in the moment.”
Happy in return to Raptors, Kawhi Leonard doesn't regret leaving after winning 2019 NBA title
While it’s impossible to project long-term results from a one-game sample, the Raptors opening-night romp offers glimpses at the team’s potential. In theory Leonard is the top scoring option, but in practice the Raptors boast a balanced offence. Leonard finished the first half with just two field goals in 10 attempts, but the Raptors still led 69-44 after two quarters. By the final buzzer, Leonard, who sank all 11 of his free throws, had racked up 23 points. That figure tied him with Barnes and point guard Immanuel Quickley for the team lead, while Barrett added 20 points.
Leonard might be the team's gravitational centre, but Quickley was the club’s opening night stat sheet filler. The seventh-year guard from the University of Kentucky led the club in minutes played (28), assists (7), three-pointers made (4) and plus-minus (+38) but left the game impressed with the Raptors’ on-court co-operation.
“It’s kind of like a music ensemble,” he said after the game. “You really can’t stop it in the middle of the song… You just gotta kind of feel where the game is going.”
WATCH: The physics of Leonard's 2019 winning shot:
While the trade for Leonard generated league-wide headlines for the Raptors, local fans don’t need a blockbuster off-season transaction to lure them to Scotiabank Arena. Last year the Raptors averaged 18,832 spectators at regular-season home games, good for 11th in the NBA. In 2024-25 they averaged 18,745, ranking 11th even though they won only 30 games. And in 2023-24 they logged just 25 wins but still finished seventh in attendance, drawing an average of 19,515 spectators on home dates.
Rookie power forward Allen Graves received an early lesson the nature of Raptors fandom last month when, posting from the team’s X account, he praised the team’s supporters as “the best fans in the nation.” Followers in the replies quickly reminded him that, as Canada’s only NBA team, Raptors fans are a nation unto themselves.
His vision corrected, Graves, who scored his first NBA points on Wednesday night, now says he sees Raptors followers more clearly.
'Best fans in the league'
“Best fans in the league,” Graves said after a Monday practice at the OVO Athletic Centre.
But even if the Raptors might have sold out opening night even without Leonard, the pageantry around Wednesday's game, both inside the arena and in the surrounding neighbourhood, bore his palm print.
Over on Front St. W., a short walk from Scotiabank Arena’s west entrance, New Balance, Leonard’s shoe and apparel partner, had parked a pair of cargo vans for a Leonard-centric sponsor activation. One vehicle, bearing New Balance and Foot Locker logos, housed a mobile pop-a-shot game, with people lining up on the sidewalk, awaiting their chance to play. And the second cargo van was simply a billboard on wheels, emblazoned with a full-sized ad for the Leonard’s latest line of New Balance basketball shoes, the Kawhi V Collection.
Back at the arena, spectators arrived to find a new white t-shirt, each with an outline sketch of Leonard’s famously large hand, etched on the front. Earlier in the day, he had also posted a season-preview sizzle reel, which he had also narrated, to his social media feeds. The video played again pre-game, and featured Leonard as narrator, musing about his Raptors past while foreshadowing a bright future.
“People move on, things change, and even the greatest moments become memories,” he says while 2019 highlights roll, and piano chords play in the background. “What we shared here, that’s forever.”
But there are some significant differences between Leonard’s two tours of duty with the Raptors.
He played the 2019 season on an expiring contract, and, despite the best efforts of the Raptors and their fans, he jumped to the Clippers during free agency. But last month he committed to the Raptors long term, signing a contract extension that will pay him more than $56 million next season, with a player option worth nearly $59 million in 2028-29.
Two basketball players smile on the bench.
Leonard, right, with Scottie Barnes during the Raptors's win over Chicago on Wednesday. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
By then Leonard will be nearly 38, which is to say age is an issue.
It didn’t appear to affect him last season, when he started 65 games and logged 2085 minutes played, the fourth-highest total of his career. He also averaged 43.3 points per 100 possessions, a career-high total by a wide margin. His next-best season by that metric was 2019-20, when he averaged 39.5. His championship season with the Raptors he averaged 37.5 points per 100 possessions.
But his injury history lingers.
'It's one game'
There’s that final season with the Spurs, cut short by shoulder problems and other ailments. He missed all of 2021-22 while rehabbing from reconstructive knee surgery, and played just 37 games two seasons ago. Eight years after Leonard and the Raptors helped take the phrase “load management” mainstream, player and team are still attuned to the balance between work, recovery and rehab, aimed at safeguarding his health and performance deep into the playoffs.
“We do a lot of work tracking his loads, his health, getting a lot of input from him. We’re checking every single box that exists in order to collect as much information as possible to put him in comfortable situations,” Rajakovic said after practice on Monday. “He’s doing all the right things there, and we have a lot of systems in place to follow that over the course of the year.”
Twenty minutes after the final buzzer, Leonard strolled into the post-game press conference pulling on a blue New Balance jacket to match his track pants. His white dri fit t-shirt bore a KL2 logo just below the collar.
He declined to read too much meaning into the win, or into his own performance — 24 minutes played, 23 points on 5-of-11 shooting. It’s one win in an 82-game season, a positive result with plenty of room to improve.
In other words, with one game behind them, Leonard and the Raptors are exactly where they want to be.
“It’s one game. I’m pretty sure we’re gonna get better,” he said. “That’s it.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Morgan Campbell joins CBC Sports as our first Senior Contributor after 18 standout years at the Toronto Star. In 2004 he won the National Newspaper Award for "Long Shots," a serial narrative about a high school basketball team from Scarborough. Later created, hosted and co-produced "Sportonomics," a weekly video series examining the business of Sport. And he spent his last two years at the Star authoring the Sports Prism initiative, a weekly feature covering the intersection of sports, race, business, politics and culture. Morgan is also a TedX lecturer, and a frequent contributor to several CBC platforms, including the extremely popular and sorely-missed Sports Culture Panel on CBC Radio Q. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Literary Review of Canada, and the Best Canadian Sports Writing anthology.