Many Kawhi Leonard fans felt disrespected when it was originally reported Penny Hardaway didn’t consider the Spurs’ All-Star and former NBA Finals MVP a “superstar.” But the full, correct transcription of Hardaway’s interview on the Sirius XM NBA show The Bottomline revealed Penny said exactly the opposite.
Penny Hardaway never said Kawhi Leonard wasn’t a superstar
Hardaway was misquoted. He actually said “I could give Kawhi superstar.”
Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
Superstar? I’m not doing to discount, neither. I love Kawhi. What I’m trying to say, superstar — You know what, I could give Kawhi superstar because he’s just not a guy who likes commercials. He’s not a guy who wants to be the face of the league. He just wants to get his work done.
The knock on Kawhi Leonard used to be that he was merely a product of the Spurs’ system. Over the last few years, he’s taken that criticism and turned it upside down.
So when reports surfaced that Hardaway said Leonard wasn’t a superstar, a lot of folks objected.
“Superstar? No. Kawhi Leonard is not a superstar because he has no interest in being the face of the league or starring in TV commercials,” Hardaway said. “He’s a good player, but I wouldn’t consider him a superstar player.”
That included at least one of Kawhi’s teammates:
The claim that Leonard is simply a “good” player is far beyond an antiquated take. He’s a Finals MVP, two-time Defensive Player of the Year winner, two-time All-Star, and was one of the lead vote-getters for MVP award last season. That’s way better than good — that’s great.
Hardaway knows that. But he wasn’t talking about basketball when he made that statement. He was talking about something else, and he does have a point.
Kawhi Leonard doesn’t market himself like the basketball superstar he is
Leonard is one of the best four or five players in the league in any given year and will be a fixture the league’s MVP conversation for the foreseeable future. But in the world of public opinion, he’s still not marketed as one of the NBA’s faces. That’s by design, but it’s also what Hardaway was getting at.
Leonard does have his own Jordan Brand logo and was featured in his own Jordan Brand commercial in June asking if Kawhi can guard Kawhi. But that was one of the first times he was the subject of a national ad campaign. (By the way, these adorable HEB commercials don’t count.)
That’s far different from Leonard’s basketball peers. Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and even Kyrie Irving are all higher-profile superstars off the court than Leonard, even if they might not necessarily be better basketball players. They all have signature shoes that sell and are featured in numerous advertisements.
Leonard wasn’t even in the top 10 last year in NBA endorsement dollars according to a report from Forbes. Part of that is playing in San Antonio, but another larger part of it is that Leonard just isn’t that marketable.
Of course, Leonard doesn’t like marketing himself, which is fine.
As long as he’s winning, Leonard is OK with operating beneath the spotlight. In that way, he’s eerily similar to Tim Duncan. Duncan was also a player who picked his spots with endorsements, but ultimately just wanted to show up to the gym and play ball. Leonard hasn’t tweeted since 2015, lacks a known, verified Instagram profile, and only used Facebook for a 2012 skills camp. He clearly doesn’t want the spotlight.
Does that mean Leonard isn’t a superstar? It depends on how we define the term. He’s unquestionably a basketball superstar at just 26 years old. But Hardaway’s point about him not being a superstar off the court is true.
On a national scale, Leonard isn’t visible outside of the arenas he plays in and that matters when determining superstar stature. Hardaway wasn’t disparaging Leonard with his point. He was simply saying that there’s more to being a superstar than just playing basketball.
He would know — Hardaway was one of the most visible superstars off the court during his prime. He had his own signature shoe line and was the center of Nike’s “Little Penny” ad campaign that even featured Chris Rock and Tyra Banks.
Superstardom is about more than basketball. You have to be an ambassador for the league — you have to draw new fans in. That is biggest difference between Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant. That’s the reason why so many say Michael Jordan is unquestionably the greatest player of all time — because he’s familiar to even the biggest layman.
For Hardaway, that part of superstardom is both real and significant. Leonard isn’t globally marketable in ways superstars should be, and he may never be. That’s why Hardaway isn’t wrong.
Not that it matters much to Leonard, anyway. He’ll just have to settle for being an incredible basketball player, which, in the long run, is just fine by him and perfect for the rest of us.
See More:
