NBA legend Penny Hardaway recently claimed that Kawhi Leonard can't be classed as a superstar off the court because he isn't really interested in the commercial side of the game. That can be seen as a fair assessment as everybody knows Leonard prefers to stay out of the public spotlight when he's not playing basketball and is a very private person. But that could possibly be changing slightly this summer as the San Antonio Spurs superstar may be slowly coming out of his shell. In the past few days, the two-time All-Star has been pictured at multiple venues and events, which is rare to see. A recent image of the Klaw sent the internet crazy for multiple reasons. Firstly, it was because the Spurs star was seen out in public and was posing with rapper 2 Chainz. Secondly, the usually straight faced Kawhi managed to give a smile which is something you hardly see from him. It may sound strange but we've become used to seeing the same stone-faced look on his face from his games with San Antonio but he has been pictured smiling a fair bit recently, especially during his trip to China. 

In fact, he's been smiling so much that it has caused Spurs teammate Manu Ginobili to ask "What's going on?"

In a hilarious tweet, Ginobili said: "I saw him laughing/smiling more in these two days than in the previous six seasons. Am I missing something?"

It would have been a perfect moment if Leonard had responded, but that's one thing we definitely shouldn't expect as the small forward has only ever tweeted four times. 

Hopefully, we'll get to see more images of the 26-year-old smiling and laughing throughout the rest of the summer and beyond and become accustomed to it.  

The more important news for Spurs fans is that their superstar appears to have fully recovered from the ankle injury that cruelly ended his season against the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs. 

San Antonio was in a commanding position in game one of the Western Conference Finals at Oracle Arena and were on the verge of inflicting the Dubs' first postseason loss of the year before Kawhi went down. 

Despite that disappointment, the two-time Defensive Player of the Year enjoyed a terrific campaign where he averaged a career-high of 25.5 points as well as 5.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists.

We should certainly expect to see the former Finals MVP return to a high level next year and continue to take his game to new heights. It could finally be his year to win the MVP award.