The Kawhi Leonard Thing is No Big Deal
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I was biding my time before giving my thoughts on the LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard situation. Here we go.
For those that may not know, it has been reported that Kawhi Leonard signed an endorsement deal with a company called Aspiration. This deal was for 28 million dollars over four years. I guess Aspiration was a company that "planted trees". The whole saga started when it was reported that Kawhi Leonard never did a second of work for this company and that the Clippers may have used it as a front to circumnavigate the NBA salary cap.
This all sounds very salacious and very intriguing. When the news was first reported I thought it was going to possibly end any threat of the Clippers winning a title for decades. I figured they would wind up in a similar purgatory as the Magic or current Bulls. Then I kind of sat on this news and listened to a few other podcasts and thought a little harder about it.
I will say, while listening to "The Flagrant Ones" earlier today, I fully agree with Sean Clements comparing this Clippers situation to Deflategate. When I first heard of Deflategate I figured that would be the end of Bill Belichek, Tom Brady and the Patriots. None of that happened, and in the long run, Deflategate was no big deal at all. Tom Brady likes his footballs to be a bit under inflated, the Patriots won a few more Super Bowls and Bill Belichek is the current head coach at UNC. Nothing truly awful ended up happening, and after a long, drawn out judicial hearing, it was found that it was truly no big deal how over or under inflated footballs can be. The size of a football truly had nothing to do with the Patriots, Brady and Belichek being a dominant team. I then thought of Michigan and the whole sign stealing thing that was just wrapped up with a rather minimal punishment. Again, Michigan started doing what almost every other NCAA football team already does, they found someone who was exceptional at deciphering signals and they ran with it. By no means do I think it truly affected any outcomes of any games. Michigan had an unreal roster, a coaching staff that is currently thriving in the NFL and they won every game fair and square.
Now, with this whole Kawhi and the Clippers thing, I don't think anything major will happen, nor does anything need to happen. Sure, they may get stripped of a second round pick, but I do not think they deserve any punishment until we know the full story, which we may never know. Did Kawhi Leonard sign a lucrative deal with a phony company? Sure. Did it affect the outcome of any Clippers games? Nope. Did the Clippers try to circumnavigate the NBA salary cap? Probably. Do I care? Absolutely not. I have to imagine pro teams do this on every single level. I bet this happens in pro soccer all the time. They give out tons of money to stars routinely. I would not doubt it at all that the big time guys the Lakers have signed over the years have had side deals. I'm sure my favorite NFL team, the Packers, have done some side deals to land the stars they've gotten over the years. Basically, this whole Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration thing is really no big deal. I have zero concerns over what he did. I would bet that his Uncle, Dennis, look him up if you don't know who he is, was the driving force behind this deal. That would mean the Clippers are totally free from any punishment since he is in no way involved with the Clippers.
To me this is no big deal that is only out in the open so major sports networks and websites can get clicks. We live in a fantastical society that craves salacious stories to make ourselves feel better. That is exactly what this whole thing is to me.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.