Donovan McNabb Speculates on Kawhi Leonard's Fate

All right Donovan, we're here at the NBA Awards. Little known fact, you actually played basketball at Syracuse. Right. For the legend, Jim Beiham. Right. What's your love with basketball?

What's my first passion. I think all of us kinda grew up with a basketball in our hand. You know, now kids are starting to grow up with baseballs and and footballs. Football was one that kinda was forbidden in my house. My mom wouldn't allow that until probably 7th, 8th grade. We had to beg for that. Basketball was something growing up in the Michael Jordan era, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and and just kinda wearing some Jordans or uh whatever, you know, we still felt like we were them.

How did how did basketball shape you as a football player?

Well, you know what? You have to be able to to beat your man one-on-one. Um and that's something that I think all kids continue to work on. is if that time when you're kinda by yourself and it's now people are training, but you work on one-on-one game. And then that translate to football. Because with the football obviously people are trying to play killerman. Uh they're trying to get the ball out of your hand. So what I do is I either cross 'em over, work on my spin move, work on my hesy. Uh give him a nice dead leg, and then I'm walking in his zone.

The NBA just had their championship, Toronto won. The big question biggest acquisition I think this year is gonna be Kawhi Leonard. Where do you think he's going?

I think he stays in Toronto. I think his best The thing about that people don't understand about Kawhi, yeah, he he may be from California and he he has a house in California, but 90% of the NBA players have a house in California. So that's not one. And and he wants to be with a team that that appreciates him.

So who's your pick for MVP?

Uh, I'm going with uh Giannis. When you lead three, four categories for your for your basketball team, that says says enough. And and you have the number one seed in the East. So, I believe he trained with Kobe a couple years ago and worked on just kinda his dominance getting to the to the bucket. Uh I would like to see him be able to shoot the 15 to 18 footer consistently. People people talk about shooting threes. For a big, if you can knock down the 15 to 18 consistently and then get around the glass, you're averaging 28 points a game. You're gonna continuously get fouled around the block. But if you can knock the 15 to 18 footer consistently, it's not about threes. See, people get enamored by the three-point shot. That's for that's for your small guards. When a big can shoot a three, that's great. But don't sit there and just kinda let that be your game.

Who's your rookie of the year?

Rookie of the year would be uh Luka Dončić. I mean, his style of play, he proved he can score, he proved he had flash and swag. His vision on the court is impeccable. And then he's got size.

We also follow Trae Young a little bit. What do you think about um his development being able to handle the pressure and all the hype that's surrounding him?

Well, you know what? That it's a credit to him. Because when he first came into the league, he was compared to Steph. And so that that shows that he was able to carry that that weight on his shoulder. Go into Atlanta where he became the face of the franchise. I mean, was explosive. Put up great numbers. And now we're talking about probably as the next couple years and they had a great draft. But the next couple years might be one that that might be a a landing spot for a lot of players.