Kawhi Leonard: Toronto Raptors chief makes DeMar DeRozan trade revelation

Webster spent most of his offseason working on capturing Leonard from San Antonio Spurs on a one-year deal.

However, they had to allow the much-loved DeRozan to head in the opposite direction, although Webster refused to confirm if the shooting guard was offered up by the Raptors or requested by the Spurs.

The Raptors chief was in daily contact with Spurs assistant general manager Brian Wright to get the deal done.

But Webster insists he would not have let DeRozan go for many other players in the league.

“With someone like that, you can explore more ideas than maybe you wouldn’t have (with someone else),” Webster told Toronto Sun.

“That’s the hard part of it. You go to war with somebody and all the ups and downs and that is what makes it so hard.

“That weighs on you. You want to be respectful to all that. You want to try and see it clearly and make the right decisions.”

Webster admitted he had sleepless nights trying to work out if the deal was the best for his franchise.

At the same time, he was trying to fight off the challenge of New York Knicks and Boston Celtics.

Leonard was also injured so his fitness had to be taken into consideration.

“You don’t know when to stop,” Webster added.

“You’re up at night. You ask yourself, ‘Did we look under every stone? Are we thinking about this in every way possible? That is the difficult part.

“This was a unique case because of a few of the unknowns. There was a little bit of the medical piece we were unsure about.

“Obviously, there was some uncertainty about the future, about some of Kawhi’s intentions. I don’t know if there was a moment when we said, ‘There’s a deal’.

“Because sometimes you stop short. Sometimes you’re a couple of inches apart. I don’t know if there’s a moment where either side said ‘yes’ — it’s kind of an interesting process to work through.

“Deals happen, then they fall apart, sometimes with 24 hours, within 48 hours.”