Brian Windhorst: “I’ve heard complaints in the days after the signing. I heard complaints from the Lakers that they got played. I heard complaints from the Raptors that Kawhi came in & asked for the sun, the moon, the stars then left them at the altar.”
The Los Angeles Clippers are currently the betting favorites to win the NBA Finals in what could turn out to be the most wide open season in the history of pro basketball, but it sure wasn’t looking that way two weeks ago.
The Los Angeles Lakers are still continuing to lick their wounds from one of the worst moments in Lakers franchise history, as the team missed out on acquiring superstar free agent Kawhi Leonard in contract negotiations that became the most dramatic headlines in all of sports for weeks.
Most of the mainstream media was badly fooled by the outcome, to which ESPN’s Brian Windhorst says is not anywhere close to how shocked the Lakers were that Leonard didn’t sign there.
Windhorst said on his ‘Hoop Collective’ Podcast that the Lakers are upset because they feel like they ‘got played’ by Leonard and his camp.
Windhorst also said the Toronto Raptors were fuming as well because Leonard was leading them on and ‘came in and asked for the sun, moon, and the stars, and then left them at the altar.’
With Leonard on board in Los Angeles, the Lakers were potentially looking at a Big Three of Kawhi, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis that would have instantly put themselves on a shortlist of the greatest teams of all time.
The Lakers eventually scrambled to acquire broken toys like DeMarcus Cousins, Avery Bradley, and Danny Green at the dying seconds of free agency, but the black eye from losing out on Leonard could remain for the next decade if Leonard and Paul George have a hand in ending LeBron’s career.