Top 100 moments of the 2018-19 NBA season, Part 2

48. Kawhi Leonard’s laugh at Media Day

It was a long year for Kawhi Leonard before his trade to the Toronto Raptors. He spent the 2017-18 campaign dealing with a quad injury, played in only nine games, was rusty in those nine games, was called out by his teammates, requested a trade from one of the NBA’s most well-respected organizations and was labeled a prima donna because of the rumors he wanted to go to L.A.

His silence through it all spoke volumes, and certainly didn’t stop the criticism and questions from rolling in about his health, his game, his character, his fit in Toronto, his likelihood to re-sign, his ability to get the Raptors over the hump — you name it.

So when Kawhi broke months of silence at Media Day by telling everyone he wanted to people know he’s “a fun guy” and then laughed like a robot discovering human emotion for the first time, it was easily the most memorable moment of all 30 teams’ Media Days.

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1044242891592409088

Like, what even was that? It was so forced, in response to something that wasn’t funny, but somehow seemed natural coming from him. You could almost see the glint of confusion in his eyes, as though his cyborg programming had been betrayed by this momentary experience with human sentiment and needed to reset itself immediately.

Is it messed up the world’s reaction to Kawhi Leonard trying to be normal was universal laughter and disbelief? Kind of. But if anything, it just endeared him to everyone outside of San Antonio again.

We don’t know what makes Kawhi tick. We don’t know where he’s going to sign over the summer. We just know he’s a robot, and we could all share a throughly uncomfortable laugh about it. And, as always, the internet always wins.