Reason Three: Kawhi Won A Championship
I mean, this is the most obvious reason of all, right? The man just won a championship. I think at the level of competitiveness that these players are, winning The Finals would be one heck of a reason to want to stay.
Yes, this touches back on reason one about his fit with the roster, but there is so much more to it. This championship was special. Kawhi was sent to a team that he had absolutely no initial desire to join and did the toughest thing possible in the league. He won.
He won for an entire country that had never had an NBA championship nor had they had any major sports championship since 1993. Canada has fully embraced The Klaw and once he parades through the streets in a couple of days, I don’t know how those emotions don’t take over even for someone who shows as little emotion as he does.
No, there’s no guarantee they’ll even be back in The Finals next season. Philadelphia will be back. Milwaukee will be back. There are teams like Brooklyn who could pose a threat if things break their way. Still, the East is arguably weaker than the West still and a repeat could happen.
Bringing back-to-back championships to an entire country would be extremely special.
When they traded for Kawhi, many thought only a championship would convince him to stay. Here we are on the day after the Raptors were named the champions and it seems like hope for this summer has been squashed.