‘Paparazzi’ Kawhi Leonard fans asked to back off - Toronto Star

“Paparazzi” Raptors fans obsessed with keeping star player Kawhi Leonard in Toronto following the team’s historic NBA championship have a new way to lobby him to stay.

A website — kawhiushouldstay.com — has been set up for fans to send “their heartfelt messages and sign petitions to Kawhi” without harassing him on the streets, Mayor John Tory announced Saturday.

“The Toronto way says we do it quietly but in a determined way,” said Tory. “He should be given his privacy for now while he decides. … This a much better way for thousands upon thousands of people to ask him to stay.”

Following Monday’s championship parade, Kawhi remained in the city and was photographed visiting Niagara Falls with his family. He was also spotted by fans at a chain restaurant and buying boxes at Home Depot.

The website is being operated by Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia, who likened Leonard’s online tracking to fans “acting like the paparazzi.” It is also backed by Mohamad Fakih, president of Paramount Fine Foods, said Tory’s spokesperson Don Peat.

The website features a petition where fans can fill in their names, emails and messages to Leonard beginning with an automated script that says “Kawhi, I want you to stay because ...”

It shows a goal of a one million signatures. More than 3,200 fans had signed it within hours of it going live on Saturday morning.

Tory told reporters Leonard will be given all the fan mails and petitions.

“Fans are very excited, we have never been in this zone before,” said Bhatia, a businessman who hasn’t missed a Raptors home game for 24 years. “But we’re just trying to tell fans to give him space … shop where he wants to go, eat where he wants to go and go where he wants to go.”

Leonard officially becomes a free agent at 6 p.m. on June 30.

Temur Durrani is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @temurdur

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June 23, 2019 at 01:40AM