Why this season has been ultimate roller coaster for Kawhi Leonard

For Kawhi Leonard, this season has been the ultimate roller coaster. He went from being the biggest snub of the NBA All-Star Game to putting on its best performance after commissioner Adam Silver added him as an injury replacement. He went from helping the Clippers become the hottest team in the league amid a 17-5 run to watching them deteriorate into rebuild mode after they traded James Harden and Ivica Zubac earlier this month. He went from being embroiled in drama before the season even began amid allegations that the Clippers circumvented the salary cap regarding a $28 million endorsement deal through Aspiration to having one of the best seasons of his career. He went from being dismissed an injury-riddled has-been to reminding everyone that he’s one of the league’s top superstars. Leonard has quietly been one of the biggest storylines of the season for both the best and worst reasons. And on Sunday, he was at the center of the basketball world after eking his way into the All-Star Game as the sole representative of the Clippers and their shiny new $2 billion arena, which hosted the event.Leonard responded by putting on a MasterClass in showmanship.He scored 31 points in 12 minutes on 11-for-13 shooting from the field and 6-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc during the World versus Stripes contest, including making a game-winning stepback 3-pointer with four seconds left. Even though his team didn’t make the championship round of the league’s new round-robin tournament, he received four of the 14 MVP votes.

(Anthony Edwards received the remainder of the votes after leading his team to win the competition.)For Leonard, Sunday was a microcosm of his season as a whole: He has managed to shine through all of the drama. “I feel like I’m one of the best when I am playing basketball,” he said. There are a long list of hypotheticals surrounding this season for Leonard. If it weren’t for the Clippers’ dreadful 6-21 start, would he have bee...