Raptors announce Media Day schedule for Monday, featuring Kawhi Leonard

Tomorrow’s Raptors Media Day event marks the official start of the 2018-19 season. The team will do its traditional meet-and-greet with various media members, they’ll answer questions, they’ll have their picture taken, and they’ll probably film some TV spots too. And when that’s all done, they’ll bundle onto a plane and head west for training camp.

This is all pretty normal stuff, except for the fact that Toronto has been waiting for Kawhi Leonard to officially acknowledge, verbally, that he is indeed a Toronto Raptor. It’s been a rollercoaster of emotion since the mid-July trade, and now over two months later, it looks like this phase of anticipation is coming to an end.

The Raptors PR people have officially announced the Media Day schedule for Monday, and jumping out at 10:30am, in a tandem presser with former Spurs teammate Danny Green and team president Masai Ujiri, is Kawhi.

10 a.m. – Nick Nurse

10:30 a.m. – Masai Ujiri, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green

11:20 a.m. – Kyle Lowry

11:30 a.m. – Jonas Valanciunas

11:40 a.m. – C.J. Miles

11:50 a.m. – Fred VanVleet

Other Things of Note:

It will be incredibly interesting to see how Lowry treats this entire event. He’s surly at the best of times, and also smart enough to know that the main question he’ll be asked about it is his relationship with DeMar DeRozan, and what the Kawhi trade means for him. There’s a good chance he’ll be very cranky once again.

Jonas Valanciunas meanwhile, as the now longest-tenured Raptor, will also be given the floor to answer the same questions. Valanciunas isn’t as insightful as Lowry, but he has gotten more comfortable of late with a good one-liner while the cameras roll. We’ll see what kind of mood JV is in.

Miles will also get some podium time, as he’s one of the team’s veteran players who also happens to be a consistently great quote. On the come up too is none other than Fred VanVleet, who will one day be a veteran (in Toronto or elsewhere) tasked with doing the same thing C.J. is doing now: answering questions with aplomb and giving all the media members on hand something to work with.

The rest of the Raptors will also be shuffling around, answering questions, and humouring us all in various shapes and forms. This includes the recently signed training camp players: Kay Felder, Chris Boucher, Deng Adel, Kyle Collinsworth, Eric Moreland, and the two-wayer Jordan Loyd.

Keep an eye on our official Twitter account — @RaptorsHQ — for coverage from myself (also here) and Sean Woodley (over here) throughout the day.

Remember: with Media Day on tomorrow, that means the NBA season is almost finally here.