I know, it’s water under a bridge that refuses to fully drain, but the whole new Kawhi Leonard Saga with the Clippers has brought everything from the past back to light. As a quick recap, podcaster Pablo Torre has uncovered documents from the bankruptcy filings of controversial company Aspiration that suggest Clippers owner Steve Balmer allegedly circumvented the salary cap by using his investments in the company to pay Leonard up to $48 million for a no-show sponsorship deal.
Other potential smoking guns have since been revealed, including Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong randomly investing $2 million himself as the failing company the was struggling to fulfill a $1.75 million payment that was owed to Leonard. For his part, Balmer continues claim his innocence, instead saying he is a victim who was defrauded by a company whose owner is now in jail for — you guessed it — fraud. The NBA has hired a top-tier law firm to investigate, and depending on how it plays out, huge consequences could be coming for the Clippers, including massive fines, loss of draft picks, or in the most extreme case, the termination of Leonard’s contract (which would make him a free agent able to sign with any team, possibly for cheap, which could potentially turn the league on it’s head).
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So, what does this have to do with the Spurs? Well, poorly kept secrets that we knew about in 2019 but generally got swept under the rug are returning to the spotlight, and it begs the question if more went on in 2018 that we haven’t been told about. It was known back when Leonard became a free agent after winning the 2019 championship with the Toronto Raptors that his uncle and “manager”, Dennis Robertson, was asking for impermissible benefits from at least the Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers in free agency, including an ownership stake in the team or affiliates (such as the Toronto Maple Leafs), access to a private jet that would be available for use 24-7, and other privileges that are only available to licensed player agents, which Robertson is not.
Another not-so-well kept secret is Leonard wanted, even demanded to play with Paul George — a trade neither the Lakers or Raptors had the desire and/or personnel to make. However, possibly to their own detriment, the Clippers agreed to make it happen if Leonard signed, sending current MVP and NBA champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the Thunder for the over-the-hill George. The trade didn’t work out well, as Leonard and George were rarely healthy enough to play at the same time, only winning a total of three playoff series together before the latter moved on.
Do you know who else Kawhi demanded trade for PG13? That’s right, the Spurs. Back in 2019, Leonard revealed straight up that he had “asked” for the Spurs to trade for George. Odds are they said no because they already had LaMarcus Aldridge and were loyal to him (he was their first big get in free agency in the modern era, and they had already gone through their own private saga with him), plus the Pacers probably would have still demanded more.
Kawhi asking for his team to trade for a certain player isn’t too big of deal — it’s become the norm for stars to try and team up by an means necessary these days — but it does beg the question: if Leonard and Uncle Dennis demanded something from the Spurs that they did of at least three other teams when he hit free agency, who’s to say they also didn’t demand the same impermissible benefits?
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While some may say, “It doesn’t matter anymore, we have Victor Wembanyama now,” and so on, it actually does. This saga caused a hit to their reputation that still lives on. Even today, his falling out with the Spurs is still defined as medical mismanagement (sometimes kindly worded as a “disagreement”) of his knee/quad issues despite proof that they were right (his issue is chronic, not something that could be surgically repaired). Who’s to say opposing front offices don’t use those same talking points with free agents, telling potential prospects, “Look what happened to Kawhi. Do you really want your medical future in their hands?”
Back in 2018, the Spurs released some of their story through ESPN, but it never felt like they truly stood up and defended themselves, instead just taking the hit and moving on. It made sense to an extent: the NBA is a players’ league, and they were already losing the PR battle against Uncle Dennis despite their sterling reputation, so why make it worse? Not to mention, it’s likely that they, or at least Gregg Popovich, still loved and respected Leonard (with incidents like “Boo Gate” being proof), and they didn’t want to upend his career and take the PR hit that would come with that as well.
However, it’s seven years later, and the mask of a quiet player who “just wanted to hoop” is coming off. His reputation is already shot, even if it’s mostly the fault of his uncle, so at some point, the Spurs need to stop caring about him and start looking out for themselves. If any impermissible demands were made, they should speak up and fix their reputation once and for all, because it does in fact still matter.
Besides, the only reason they aren’t still in rebuild mode trying to recover from the damage he did is one extremely lucky ping pong ball bounce in the right year, and the chances of ending their playoff drought (which is currently the second longest in the NBA because of all this) wouldn’t look so hot.