Kawhi Leonard Hands: What Are the Measurements and Are They the Biggest in NBA History?

Kawhi Leonard is often regarded as one of the best players in the modern game. Leonard is a multi-dimensional player who can excel on either end of the court. But Kawhi’s gigantic hands receive as much attention as his playing style. So how big are his hands? 

Kawhi Leonard is nicknamed the ‘Klaw’ because of the size of his hands. One would be familiar that Kawhi doesn’t have an average pair of hands and that he has the ability to do certain things that others can’t! 

How big are Kawhi Leonard’s hands? 

If we’re talking colloquial terms, they’re huge! But on the mathematical side, Kawhi’s hands are 9.75 inches long from the tip of his longest finger to the palm. For reference, the average hand size of a human is 7.6 inches long! 

What’s more astounding is that Kawhi’s hands measure 11.25 inches wide, and it is crazy what he can do in the NBA with such enormous hands. For starters, the six-foot-seven forward will have an incredible grip on the ball, which will prevent opponents from making easy steals. 

But there has to be some disadvantage that comes with it, right? Yes, there is, and Kawhi spoke about it when he appeared on his teammate Serge Ibaka’s “How Hungry Are You?” series. 

“It’s just kinda difficult shooting sometimes,” Leonard revealed. “It’s just difficult. You know, sometimes, like, if you shoot a girl’s basketball, it’s smaller, it’s hard to shoot it, hard to roll off your hands. So, some games or some shots that I do shoot it, it’ll be too far in my hands, so I have to really focus on that.”

While he sometimes has troubles shooting the ball, Kawhi can also do this:

This isn’t the only abnormal feat that Kawhi can do with his hands. There might be plenty, but they’re undiscovered as the LA Clippers player lives quite a conservative life away from social media. 

Does Kawhi Leonard have the biggest hands in NBA history?

The answer is no. Kawhi Leonard definitely has bigger hands than most of the NBA players, but they aren’t the biggest ever. Of course, he has an enormous gift that allows him to dominate a sport, but there are others who’ve made a mark with their huge pair of hands. 

As a matter of fact, hand sizes measurement are usually relative to the player’s height. A 7’5” player will obviously have large hands when compared to Kawhi, because of the height. So, for logical reasons, the NBA uses a formula to measure the player with the longest pair of hands in the league.

This is how the formula works: (hand length x width/player’s height)

So now we know how the formula works, so here are the Top 3 players with the longest hands in NBA history (H/T HoopsHype):

• Greg Smith

Hand length: 9.75 inches

Hand width: 12 inches

Length x width / height: 1.463

• Noah Vonleh

Hand length: 9.75 inches

Hand width: 11.75 inches

Length x width / height: 1.432

• Kawhi Leonard

Hand length: 9.75 inches

Hand width: 11.25 inches

Length x width / height: 1.406

That’s the list right there! One can also get reminded about Shaquille O’Neal when talking about enormous hands, but the ‘Big Diesel’ was a seven-footer, so it is quite natural in his case. Here’s a video of Kawhi and Shaq comparing their hand sizes! 

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