Kawhi Leonard’s free agency has still been the topic of discussion in the sports world despite the fact that he’s already chosen the Los Angeles Clippers and has signed a three-year deal with a player option on the backend to make him eligible for free agency again in the summer of 2021.
But new reports continue to emerge from this summer’s free agency with insiders claiming Kawhi recruited Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, respectively, to team up. Now reports are saying that the Raptors felt that they weren’t legitimate contenders in the Kawhi sweepstakes.
According to Josh Lewenberg of TSN, Kawhi made it virtually impossible for the Raptors to keep him with some of his “unreasonable” requests. Toronto GM Masai Ujiri reportedly became suspicious of Leonard’s intentions almost immediately. Many are pointing to the shadowy Dennis Robertson, better known as “Uncle Dennis” who heads Kawhi’s off-the-court affairs as the one making demands of the organization that superseded any realistic expectations.
Ujiri was asked about the free agency process with Kawhi and told reporters, “I know what we’re dealing with here and I appreciate what the process was,” he said. “I know free agency, I know how it works. It’s not my first rodeo. You know things are going to go up and down. This was a different kind of free agency. It was high stakes and we understood that.”
