After months in limbo, Kawhi Leonard gets $115 million contract extension from Raptors

Kawhi Leonard spent most of his summer waiting on the NBA to let him go back to Toronto. Now he's seemingly not going anywhere else.

Leonard agreed to a two-year, $115 million contract extension with the Raptors that includes a player option for the 2028-29 season a person with knowledge confirmed to USA TODAY Sports. The person requested anonymity because the deal was not yet publicly announced.

The extension comes eight days after Toronto finally closed its trade for the 35-year-old, a deal the teams agreed to on June 30 and then sat on for more than two months. The hold up was due to a league investigation into whether the Los Angeles Clippers had used outside endorsement deals to pay Leonard more than the salary cap allowed.

Leonard is in the last year of a contract that pays him $50.3 million this season. To get the trade done, he waived his full 15% trade kicker, a bonus some players get when they're dealt.

He's coming off a 65-game season, up from 37 the year before. He averaged 27.9 points and 1.9 steals and made the All-NBA second team.

The last time Toronto had him, he gave the city a championship and left a month later.

Why the Raptors paused the Kawhi Leonard trade

Toronto went 46-36 last season and lost to Cleveland in seven games in the first round of the playoffs. The Raptors agreed to send Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a 2027 pick swap and second-round picks in 2030 and 2033 to the Clippers for Leonard.

On July 9, Toronto hit pause. The investigation was still open and nobody could say yet whether Leonard would be suspended. The Raptors did not comment publicly the rest of the summer.

The report that started the NBA investigation

In September 2025, reporter Pablo Torre reported that Leonard had a $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration, a climate-focused financial company, that asked almost nothing of him. Former employees told Torre the deal was a way around the salary cap. Investors tied to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had put money in Aspiration.

What the NBA found

The league released its findings Sept. 2. Investigators found a "pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations." The Clippers had lined up deals for Leonard with four companies, pushed those companies to sign him by offering them team business and paid personal expenses for him.

The Clippers lost five first-round picks, 2029 through 2033, and were fined $30 million. Ballmer was suspended for a year. Gillian Zucker, president of business operations, got a one-year unpaid suspension. Lawrence Frank, president of basketball operations, got six months unpaid. Dennis Robertson, Leonard's uncle and business manager, was banned from dealing with NBA teams for five years.

Leonard was fined $700,000 and was not suspended.

"I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgement by people within my inner circle," Leonard said in a statement. He also said he signed his Clippers contract and the endorsement deals in good faith.

What's next for Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors?

The trade became official Sept. 14. The extension means Leonard is signed for more than one season in Toronto this time. He joins Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley under coach Darko Rajakovic. General manager Bobby Webster, promoted to executive vice president this summer, made the deal.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: After months in limbo, Kawhi Leonard gets $115 million contract extension from Raptors