{"id":211567,"date":"2025-08-04T03:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T03:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/211567\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T03:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T03:28:10","slug":"i-was-very-close-kawhi-leonard-admitted-he-strongly-considered-signing-with-the-lakers-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/211567\/","title":{"rendered":"“I was very close” – Kawhi Leonard admitted he strongly considered signing with the Lakers in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I was very close” – Kawhi Leonard admitted he strongly considered signing with the Lakers in 2019<\/a> originally appeared on Basketball Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard<\/a> took his time. His sweet old time. The kind of time that gets you to grab a warm cup of hot chocolate and reach for the TV remote.<\/p>\n

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He had just led the Toronto Raptors<\/a> to their first NBA championship and was coming off a playoff run that earned him Finals MVP and league-wide respect.<\/p>\n

Free agency began and two teams were waiting to hear his answer. The Los Angeles Lakers had cleared the space and were ready to add him next to LeBron James<\/a> and Anthony Davis. The Raptors had kept the door open and hoped his bond with the city would be enough.<\/p>\n

For days, nothing came out. Leonard made no announcements. But behind the scenes, one team was still working to shift the balance.<\/p>\n

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“I was very close [to choosing the Lakers and Raptors]. Real close,” Leonard said<\/a> in a 2019 interview with ESPN. “But when [the Clippers] presented the opportunity of playing with Paul it was easy, it was a yes. I said let’s get it going.”<\/p>\n

The Clippers were the third team in the mix, and while they didn’t have a superstar at the time, they had everything else. They had a strong front office, a committed owner and a group of role players who had just pushed Golden State to six games. Still, it wasn’t enough.<\/p>\n

Leonard told them he wanted a second star, someone who was not just talented but in his prime. That’s when the Paul George<\/a> trade came together. Oklahoma City moved George in exchange for a massive package of picks and players, and that changed everything. Once Leonard saw it was done, he agreed to join them.<\/p>\n

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The Lakers nearly had him<\/p>\n

Leonard later admitted how close the Lakers were to signing him.<\/p>\n

“They had a big opportunity to sign me,” he said. “I was close, but I ended up on the other side.”<\/p>\n

The Lakers had done everything right. They stayed patient and cleared the space to sign Leonard. Many thought they had the edge \u2014 including former president of basketball operations Magic Johnson, who made headlines for allegedly sharing leaks<\/a> to the media about Leonard’s free agency plans \u2014 especially with Davis already on board and James ready to welcome another star.<\/p>\n

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For a full week, they remained in the dark while Leonard gathered information and considered his options. He was not interested in fanfare or public recruiting. He was focused on control. He wanted a team to be built around his priorities. The Clippers gave him that.<\/p>\n

A new kind of partnership<\/p>\n

Leonard’s comments after the signing made it clear. It was about doing it with someone who understood the same things.<\/p>\n

“This is probably going to be my first time playing with an elite player on his level around the same age as me, same talent,” Leonard said of joining forces with George, who was a reigning NBA MVP Finalist. “I’m excited.”<\/p>\n

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Leonard had played with stars before. Tim Duncan was already a legend when a young Leonard joined the Spurs. Kyle Lowry had been to multiple All-Star Games. But Paul George was different. He was a two-way wing and someone Leonard could trust to take the pressure off without needing to be taught the moment. They were equals in both age and approach. That kind of pairing was rare.<\/p>\n

The Lakers moved on quickly. They signed Danny Green and filled out their roster. Leonard’s choice shifted the power in the city and changed how people viewed the Clippers.<\/p>\n

For the first time, they weren’t the fallback team in Los Angeles. They had built something strong enough to pull a Finals MVP away from two championship rosters.<\/p>\n

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Related: David Robinson spoke about finding it hard to communicate with Kawhi Leonard: “He’s a hard guy to understand and read”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Aug 3, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I was very close” – Kawhi Leonard admitted he strongly considered signing with the Lakers in 2019 originally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[495,7,559,1333,479,529,3844,185,251,150,6,475,526,681,19509,6834,1674,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-211567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-danny-green","12":"tag-golden-state","13":"tag-kawhi-leonard","14":"tag-kyle-lowry","15":"tag-lebron-james","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-oklahoma-city","20":"tag-paul-george","21":"tag-raptors","22":"tag-the-clippers","23":"tag-the-raptors","24":"tag-tim-duncan","25":"tag-toronto","26":"tag-toronto-raptors","27":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114968376490835435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}