Kawhi Leonard Hilariously Refuses To Give Gatorade Free Publicity

Kawhi Leonard expertly defends against well-placed Gatorade bottle at press conference: “Not sponsored by Gatorade.”

BYKyle Rooney
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Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Kawhi Leonard doesn't care if Gatorade is an official sponsor of the NBA - if they aren't cutting him a check he will simply refuse to give that tasty sports drink any free publicity. Those are the rules.

Case in point, Kawhi made sure to remove the bottle of Gatorade that was intentionally placed on his table ahead of his post-game interview on Sunday night. The best part is you can even hear Kawhi, perfectly on brand, mutter to himself, “Not sponsored by Gatorade.”

https://twitter.com/_/status/1229648481997864967

Of course, this viral clip is giving Gatorade even more exposure but that's besides the point here. Kawhi may be the most unintentionally funny athlete of all time given his stoic nature and expressionless demeanor both on and off the court. The guy (possibly robot) is all business all the time - no frills, fluff or fuss.

And this video begs the question: Does he conduct an ocular sweep of the podium for any non-sponsored products every time he conducts an interview? If so, nobody noticed until Sunday's All Star Game. But now that the cat is out of the bag, and people will surely be keeping an eye out to see if any rogue Gatorade bottles sneak by at future press conferences.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1229786030087081985
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https://twitter.com/_/status/1229668460181041153
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https://twitter.com/_/status/1229814680396263427


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