In his first tenure as a Toronto Raptor, Kawhi Leonard both delivered the greatest moment in franchise history and deepened an inferiority complex that has surrounded the team since its inception. Pretty impressive work in less than a calendar year.You remember the high points: the iconic four-bounce series-winner against Philadelphia, the all-time playoff run culminating in closing out Oracle Arena with three straight wins and an NBA title for the Raptors. And yet, the franchise that always had issues, real and perceived, attracting and keeping stars, still had to watch Leonard leave Toronto for the LA Clippers — not even the Lakers! — after the season ended. Leonard’s stay in Toronto started with Raptors president Masai Ujiri urging Raptors fans to “Believe in the city. Believe in yourselves” when Leonard and Danny Green were asked about the team’s perception around the league. It ended with confirmation that little had fundamentally changed regarding the Raptors’ status in the star-obsessed NBA, despite the team’s best efforts, not to mention the banner that would hang forever.What a reunion with Kawhi means for the RaptorsEric Koreen and Jeshua KiddTuesday’s events put a bizarre, hilarious and even poignant coda on that story. Not only is Leonard coming back to Toronto, but he is doing so specifically because he wants to be a Raptor. You could make this stuff up, but you’d be accused of undercooking the character motivation.As free agency started on Tuesday night, the Raptors and Clippers finalized a deal that sends Leonard back to Toronto. According to a team source who spoke on condition of anonymity so they wouldn’t jeopardize the deal, Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, the Raptors’ unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a 2027 pick swap and two second-round picks are going back to Los Angeles.This does not appear to be the steal that the 2018 deal was, but the Raptors could make the trade, while other teams would not, because Leonard’s camp made it clear he was willing to sign an extension in Toronto. He has just one year left on his three-year deal, and other teams were not about to give the Clippers much of value for the 35-year-old Leonard without his explicit buy-in.It’s an echo of 2018, while also being the complete opposite: Then, the Raptors were able to acquire Leonard only because most of the league was certain he would head home to California when he became a free agent the next summer. Factoring in his quadriceps and knee injuries, no team without much certainty of retaining Leonard was going to make a serious bid. That’s how the Raptors got him for a relative pittance: DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and one first-round pick.The two Los Angeles teams figured they would keep their assets and just try to sign him in the summer, while the 26 other teams thought it was a fool’s errand, at best a one-year joyride bound to end in a crash. The Raptors had been beaten down enough in LeBron James’ Eastern Conference that a joyride seemed fun, whatever the result.It was. What comes now might be, too. It appears that the words of Ujiri, who now runs the Dallas Mavericks, have started resonating with Leonard: He believes both in Toronto and himself.The trade is obviously a big risk for the Raptors, a team that won just one playoff series during Leonard’s seven-year L.A. interregnum. We don’t yet know how much the Raptors will pay Leonard on his extension, but it is safe to say it will be a lot. He played in about 60 percent of the Clippers’ games during his time with the team, and players don’t usually become available more frequently as they age. They gave up unprotected picks for years in which Leonard will be in his 40s.The analysis, for now, can wait. This should be a deeply meaningful moment for Raptors fans. Leonard’s first Toronto stint conjured questions of what loyalty means in pro sports. As he approached free agency, Raptors social media moved on to tracking private planes that may or may not have carried the stoic star. Leonard went to a Blue Jays game and made a trip to Niagara Falls, with Raptors fans trying to read into all of it. Multiple local businesses were offering Leonard lifetime freebies if he would just stay a Raptor, trying to repeat and keep the party going.Instead, he left, returning to his native Southern California. People could understand that, even if it stung a bit.There was no denying that Leonard’s tenure in L.A. went about as poorly as it could have. There were plenty of injuries after the Raptors, led by vice-president of player performance and health Alex McKechnie, took pains to prioritize Leonard’s health, jeopardizing team chemistry in the process. (Also, they introduced the term “load management” to the world.) Then, there was the Aspiration scandal, which shed a different light on Leonard’s decision to join the Clippers. Regardless, it looked bad on Leonard and worse on the Clippers, whose executives were in Toronto often during Leonard’s one Raptors season. It might not have been tampering by the letter of the collective bargaining agreement — except when it was, as the Clippers were fined $50,000 when then-coach Doc Rivers compared Leonard to Michael Jordan on ESPN during the playoffs — but to Raptors fans, it felt like tampering.(On the Aspiration note, there is no reason to think that the Raptors would receive any punishment as a result of the league’s investigation. The Clippers are the team who are accused of circumventing the salary cap to sign and then retain Leonard, so there is no reason the Raptors would take the hit.)It wasn’t pure schadenfreude, but seeing the Clippers struggle wasn’t unwelcome for the Raptors or their fans. Leonard wanting to return to Toronto comes with some satisfaction, then. No, it is not the same as if he stayed in 2019, giving the Raptors a chance to repeat as champions, not that the 2019-20 team wasn’t fun in its own way. Certainly, there is no reason to believe Leonard wouldn’t still be a Clipper if the Clippers still wanted him to be one. They are choosing youth.Absent that, though, this is proof that Leonard’s year in Toronto meant something more to him than just a line on his resume. He felt comfortable with the team and the city. He wouldn’t be coming back if not for the money, but he wanted the money specifically so he could be in Toronto, so he could be a Raptor.Back in 2019, Leonard’s departure encouraged Raptors fans to think big, existential thoughts about the purpose of sports fandom. Leonard’s return is not an answer to those quandaries, at least not in its own. It is, though, a reminder that things can have a funny way of working out, huh?