Each NBA team’s most clutch player of all-time

Most clutch player in Toronto Raptors history: Kawhi Leonard

Kawhi Leonard spent only one season with the Toronto Raptors, but (including playoffs) it was the best single season in franchise history. He was the best player on the only Toronto team to make the NBA Finals in 2019, and was the Finals MVP in a victory over the Golden State Warriors to bring home the only NBA championship in franchise history.

Leonard had a number of key moments in his one-season run with the team. In the Eastern Conference Finals he changed the series when he began guarding league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, successfully daring him to hit jumpers. The Raptors won four straight after the switch en route to winning the conference.

It was more of the same in the NBA Finals, where he averaged 28.5 points and 9.8 rebounds per game in a six-game victory. Yet as impressive as his last two series were, it was the Raptors’ second round series against the Philadelphia 76ers that produced the greatest clutch moment in franchise history.

Key Moment: A hard-fought second round series in 2019 made it to Game 7; it was win or go home. A Jimmy Butler layup for the Philadelphia 76ers tied the score at 90 with 4.2 seconds left. Leonard received the ball at the top of the arc and sprinted for the corner, trying to find space around the length of the Sixers defenders. Out of time and court, Leonard turned and launched as he reached the corner, just barely getting the shot off before the buzzer, the shot nearly blocked by Philadelphia center Joel Embiid.

Kawhi landed and came down in a crouch, watching his moonbeam of a shot fall onto the rim.

Bounce.

Bounce.

Bounce.

Bounce.

In.

The Raptors won on the absolute craziest shot anyone has seen in years. Toronto moved on, won two more series, and brought home the title. All because of four bounces and one incredible shot from Kawhi Leonard.