LAS VEGAS — Kyle Lowry was first to hop out of his seat, his backward championship cap and Damon Stoudamire throwback jersey then streaking across the stage, after Kawhi Leonard ended his speech during the Toronto Raptors’ championship parade with the most self-aware and protracted laugh of the year. In their one glorious and career-validating season together, Lowry got to witness first-hand that Leonard didn’t exactly match the drab, robotic persona he often displays publicly.



Leonard was usually prepared with some timely dry humor, once smack-talked Nick Nurse into silence when the rookie coach tried to compare a situation to one of his experiences in the G League, and was genuinely pleasant to be around. So, the mic-dropping chuckle that had his teammates scrambling and falling over themselves wasn’t out of character.



“That’s him,” Lowry said Monday after Team USA practice at UNLV’s Mendenhall Center.