In 2019, a championship couldn’t convince Kawhi Leonard to stay with the Toronto Raptors. Seven years later, he didn’t even have to play a game with the team to decide to stay.

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Just eight days after returning to Toronto in a delayed trade from the LA Clippers, Leonard has agreed to a two-year extension worth a projected $115 million. The deal, which includes a player option for the 2028-29 season, is about $11 million less than the maximum he could have received.

Leonard’s new deal will put him on the same timeline as teammate Immanuel Quickley and one year behind Scottie Barnes. Leonard was in the last year of a three-year, $149.5 million deal he signed with the Clippers in January 2024.

ESPN was first to report the extension details.

While Leonard’s time with the Clippers was marred by injuries, he is coming off a season in which he averaged 27.9 points per game, the highest-scoring campaign of his 14-year career. He played in 65 games, made the All-NBA Second Team and finished seventh in MVP voting.

Leonard recently spoke about his excitement about rejoining the Raptors on the team’s documentary-style program. The extension lends merits to those words.

The Raptors first acquired Leonard in 2018 from San Antonio, also when Leonard had just one year remaining on his contract. The conventional wisdom was that Leonard wanted to return to his native Southern California in free agency. The Raptors hoped they could sell him on a long-term commitment to the franchise, and came through with a championship season, plus a dedication to his long-term health that helped put “load management” into the NBA lexicon. Still, Leonard chose to go to the Clippers.

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Now, he is committing to the Raptors, despite the change of the ownership structure, top basketball decision-maker, head coach and the entire roster since he left.

The Raptors re-acquired Leonard from the LA Clippers this summer in exchange for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round picks, a first-round pick swap and two second-round picks. The deal was agreed to on June 30 but the Raptors put the trade on hold until the NBA finished its investigation into the Clippers’ salary-cap circumvention. Toronto wanted to ensure the league would not suspend Leonard or void his contract as part of its punishment.

The NBA eventually announced sweeping penalties against the Clippers that included the forfeiting of five first-round draft picks, a $30 million fine and suspensions for owner Steve Ballmer, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank and president of business operations Gillian Zucker.

Leonard was fined $700,000 for his role in “pressuring the Clippers to assist him in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtaining those opportunities, and failing to reimburse payments by the Clippers for personal expenses.” Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and then-business manager, was banned from conducting business with NBA teams for five years.

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The Clippers and Raptors finalized the Leonard trade 12 days later.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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