The Los Angeles Lakers are a franchise built on its stars and have a history of somehow landing the biggest names and best players the NBA has to offer. After signing LeBron James in 2018, the Lakers would turn their attention to then-San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard, who was known to be on the trade block after the relationship between he and the Spurs had fractured.
The Spurs would ultimately trade Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, a major move that led to them winning the 2019 NBA Championship. There has been some speculation over the years regarding the reason the Lakers were turned away and it being due to legendary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich refusing to deal Leonard to their rivals. And it appears that is 100% true.
“As part of the front office that sent [Kawhi] to Toronto, it’s almost a full-circle moment,” former Spurs vice president of strategic research Kirk Goldsberry said on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “Don’t trade great players to your rivals. I remember the Lakers were calling us in 2018, ‘Can we get Kawhi Leonard from you?’ And Pop was like, ‘F— no. We’re not trading our best player to the team we think is a real threat to our championship hopes over here.’ So we sent him to the Eastern Conference to Toronto for many reasons, but one of them was like we’re not here to help our rivals in Los Angeles.
“One of the things we knew back in 2018 was that he was gonna end up in Los Angeles a year or so later. He was gonna go to Southern California, so I’m actually kind of surprised given that, the emotional reasons he wanted to be in Southern California, that now he’s back in Canada. Of all this stuff, it was like dude, I thought you wanted to live in L.A.? I thought that was the whole thing.”
With it being known that Leonard wanted to be back in Southern California where he grew up, the Lakers certainly felt they had a real chance to land him, but Popovich put an end to that. And in fairness, the idea of trading your best player to your longtime rival is one that many around the league surely share. Though apparently not one shared by the Boston Celtics, who just dealt Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Lakers did try to sign Leonard in free agency the following offseason, but he decided to join the L.A. Clippers instead, sparking the peak of the rivalry between the two Los Angeles squads. And now Leonard is shockingly back with the Raptors in one of the biggest moves this wild offseason has produced.
Why LeBron James never met with Lakers in free agency
There is still another major shoe that has yet to drop this offseason, which is where James will sign in free agency. It was revealed that he won’t return to the Lakers and he actually never even met with the franchise prior to making that decision.
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