Kawhi Leonard's Alleged Demands To The Raptors During His 2019 Free Agency Are Out And It Could Spell Disaster For The Clippers
Nathaniel S. Butler. Getty Images.Tired of the Kawhi Scandal yet? Sorry, unfortunately we're only at the beginning. While most of the focus has been around what Steve Ballmer and the Clippers may or may not have done in an effort to circumvent the salary cap via a fugazi $28M no-show sponsorship deal, as it turns out, things may go even deeper.
If you are someone who might not totally be sure that we should put stock into Pablo Torre's reporting on what allegedly went down with the Clippers, based on some additional investigative reporting around Kawhi's 2019 free agency, it certainly becomes much more believable.
First, you have to take your brain back to the summer of 2019 and what that meant for both the NBA and Kawhi as a player. The Raptors were coming off their first-ever title, in large part because Kawhi Leonard turned himself into one of the best basketball players on the planet. He was insane during that whole run after coming over from the Spurs
60 games played, 26.6/7.3/3.3/1.8 on 49/37% splits during the regular season, which bumped up to 30.5/9.1/3.9 on 49/37% during their 24 playoff games, a 2nd Team All NBA and 2nd Team All Defensive nod, capped off by a Finals MVP. Truly one of the most dominant runs we've seen in a single season in recent NBA history.
Entering that summer following the title, the entire basketball world was on pins and needles waiting to see what Kawhi was going to do. We all knew he was most likely leaving the Raptors, but where he would end up was the question. Considering he didn't want to go there in the first place, that wasn't exactly a surprise.
As it turns out, there was a way for the Raptors to keep Kawhi in Toronto. All they had to do was cave to his camp's demands
Kawhi Leonard’s camp demands to the Toronto Raptors in 2019 free agency:
• A trade for Paul George
• An extra $10M in sponsorship income, bluntly stating: “We don’t want to do anything.”
• Partial ownership of the Toronto Maple Leafs
• Ownership stakes in other companies affiliated with MLSE
Well well well, would you look at that! Call me crazy, but those demands seem prettayyy prettayyy prettayyy close to what the Clippers (who won the Kawhi sweepstakes) are being accused of doing outside of that partial ownership request.
- Trade for Paul George? Check.
- An extra $10M for a no-show sponsorship job? Turns out it was $7M, but check nonetheless
You're telling me that Kawhi and his camp were putting out those demands to one team, but not to every team that was interested in his services back in 2019?
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Given the fact that Pablo Torre's reporting uncovered a situation that looks pretty damn close to what Kawhi was reportedly demanding from the Raptors, I'm not sure that passes the smell test. It also made me think back to what Steve Ballmer said the other day when he was on SportsCenter, attempting to do damage control
As I said in that blog, you know what you don't hear in that word salad of an answer?
"No, we did not"
So if we're to believe his camp asked for this stuff from the Raptors, we're to also believe that not only did they not ask the Clippers, but even if they did, Ballmer didn't concede? Despite the reporting of this fugazi Aspiration deal in addition to trading for Paul George? Given what the Clippers gave up in that deal, it was pretty obvious they were caving to the demands of Kawhi's camp in an effort to bring him to LA. So they granted some of his requests but not all of them, and he decided to go there anyway?
Listen, I'm not a lawyer, and no, I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but don't piss on me and tell me it's raining.
To me, that's why this reporting around the Kawhi demands to the Raptors matters. You can try and deny it all you want, but the timeline of how everything went down, combined with how similar the demands appeared to be, makes it pretty damn hard to believe the Clippers did absolutely nothing wrong
Despite his degenerative quadriceps and knee issues, Leonard’s camp did not seem interested in the extra fifth year the Raptors could offer for a maximum of $190 million, and signed with the Clippers for three years and $103 million with a player option that set up a more lucrative extension. (Over the first five years post-2019, Leonard made $196 million from the Clippers.) And the combination of extra money and stock that Leonard asked for from Toronto is exactly what he reportedly received from Aspiration.
Then came the Aspiration deal Torre unearthed. Leonard signed a four-year contract extension with the Clippers in August 2021; Ballmer invested $50 million in the company in September 2021; the Clippers announced Aspiration as a major sponsor in September 2021; Leonard registered his LLC in November 2021; Aspiration agreed to pay Leonard $7 million per year over four years — far and above Aspiration celebrity endorsers like Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., or Drake, per Torre’s reporting — starting in April 2022, with a clause excusing Leonard from doing any work. And Aspiration gave Leonard shares in the company, which became worthless when the company declared bankruptcy.
Again: the Leonard deal with Aspiration was never even announced to the public.
Part of me wonders if we'll see Uncle Dennis ultimately end up being the fall guy for all of this, similar to what happened with Shohei Ohtani's translator when it came to his gambling controversy
But based on what we know at this moment in time, given what's being reported, there was very clearly a pattern of these types of demands from Kawhi's side back in 2019.
That might not be the final smoking gun the NBA needs, but it certainly puts more validity into what Pablo Torre was suggesting.