Bennedict Mathurin did not try to dress it up. Asked what it is like to share a locker room with Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers guard gave the kind of answer that lands because it feels completely unfiltered. Leonard is still the quiet center of so much around Los Angeles, but Mathurin’s reaction captured something numbers and highlights often miss: what it feels like to watch him up close every day.
Mathurin has been with the Clippers since the February 5 trade that sent him from Indiana to Los Angeles, and his role has grown as the team has pushed back toward the playoff picture.
“I’m trying not to cuss. Because it’s hard to describe who he is. But he’s different, man. It’s hard to be his teammate and not be a fan at the same time. He’s just amazing. You want to live and learn and follow his footsteps.”
Bennedict Mathurin on what he has learned about Kawhi Leonard:
“I’m trying not to cuss. Because it’s hard to describe who he is. But he’s different, man. It’s hard to be his teammate and not being a fan at the same time. He’s just amazing. You want to live and learn and follow… pic.twitter.com/jPrFapC6rE
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) March 28, 2026
To opponents, Kawhi Leonard has long been a cold, efficient force, the kind of star who can flatten a game without seeming to raise his pulse. To teammates, though, there is often another layer: the discipline, the consistency, the seriousness with which he approaches the craft. Mathurin’s words suggest that Leonard’s influence is not just about what he does in games, but about the standard he sets around them.
That matters even more right now because Leonard has looked increasingly like himself during the Clippers’ late-season surge. He scored 27 points in Wednesday’s win over Toronto, then followed it with 28 and the game-winning jumper in Friday’s 114-113 comeback victory over Indiana, a night that turned surreal in the closing seconds but still ended with Leonard delivering the decisive shot. Los Angeles has now won four straight, and Leonard has once again become the player who organizes the emotional temperature of the team simply by being who he is.
Mathurin is in a particularly interesting position to say this out loud. He is not a lifelong teammate repeating a familiar talking point. He is a young scorer, relatively new to Leonard’s orbit, still early enough in the experience to sound openly amazed by it. That gives the quote extra force. It feels less like routine praise and more like a player realizing, in real time, what proximity to greatness actually looks like.
