Kawhi Leonard has mammoth hands. We’re talking gargantuan, and more freakish because how disproportionate they look on his toned 6-7 225-pound frame. But those hands were the subject of Steve Cacciola’s New York Times piece on Sunday, and Kawhi showed them off again in San Antonio’s Game 1 win last night.
Kawhi’s hands measure 11.25 inches from thumb to pinkie when fully stretched, which is 52 percent wider than the normal size of a man’s hand and 19 percent wider than the average predraft prospect measured at the NBA’s combine. Since 2010, 293 players have had their hands measured by scouting site DraftExpress. Only four possessed paws larger than Leonard.
That’s how Kawhi was able to finish off this ridiculous spin move on KD through a ton of Thunder traffic:
Spurs teammate Jeff Ayres described Kawhi’s mystically large hands to Cacciola after a brief story about Leonard palming the ball from the floor before finishing off a dunk:
“It’s insane, the stuff he does with his hands. I’m telling you, I think he has the biggest hands out of anybody in the N.B.A. His fingers are like 25 inches long.”
Another Spurs player, Danny Green, was equally as effusive about Leonard and his defense:
“You dribble and you think you’re in a comfortable position, and then he reaches and takes the ball away. You don’t realize what’s happening until he does it two or three times. He completely changes the way you have to play your game.”
Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan says, “If Kawhi gets his hands on you, you’re not going anywhere.”
There’s no stopping the monster mitts of Kawhi Leonard.
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