All because of a random voice.
The Toronto Raptors weren’t even a day removed from reaching the first NBA Finals in team history before the Kawhi Leonard rumor mill went into overdrive once again.
This latest edition of “Will Kawhi Leonard Stay In Toronto?” started from a simple, celebratory Instagram Live video from Kawhi’s sister, Miesha Slayton.
After the Raptors’ Game 6 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, Slayton took to Instagram for a live session. We could see as she was reading off comments from fans from all over the world. But then, a voice in the background shouted, “They know darn well he ain’t gonna be there next year.”
Slayton would eventually take down the Instagram Live video, which seemingly produced the opposite result she wanted and fueled rumors even more.
Without even knowing who the voice belonged to, NBA fans took hold of that anonymous comment as proof that Leonard would leave Toronto after this single season. NBA Twitter seemed to speculate — out of nowhere — that the voice belonged to Leonard’s uncle.
But according to Slayton, the voice neither belonged to her uncle nor a member of her family. She posted to Instagram that the voice was just a Raptors hater that she was watching the game with.
She told a Raptors Republic contributor that her uncle wasn’t even in California.
Of course, Leonard will be one of the NBA’s most discussed free agents heading into the offseason. He was traded to Toronto with one year remaining on his contract, and the city has done seemingly all it could think of to sway him into a longterm deal — including a free multimillion-dollar condo.
Still, if some random voice in an Instagram video is all it takes to spark Kawhi rumors, Toronto is going to be in for a stressful offseason — champions or not.
