Gregg Popovich apparently refused to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Lakers
· Yahoo Sports
When the Los Angeles Lakers signed LeBron James in the summer of 2018, their vision was to team him up with one or two other superstars. They wanted to nab Paul George in free agency, but he instead remained with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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That offseason, they also tried to trade for Kawhi Leonard, who had just wrapped up a frustrating and confounding season with the San Antonio Spurs. He had been engaged in a dispute with the Spurs organization about an injury that limited him to nine games, and he was available on the market.
San Antonio ended up sending Leonard to the Toronto Raptors that July. Former Spurs vice president of strategic research Kirk Goldsberry went on "The Bill Simmons Podcast" recently and said that then-Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich refused to trade Leonard to the Lakers.
“As part of the front office that sent [Kawhi] to Toronto, it’s almost a full-circle moment,” Goldsberry said. “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, ‘[expletive] 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.”
The Lakers, of course, had a legitimate rivalry with the Spurs throughout the 2000s, and this wasn't the first time Popovich exhibited disgust over the idea of L.A. netting a Hall of Famer via trade. In 2008, when the Purple and Gold landed Pau Gasol in a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, Popovich made it clear that he didn't approve of the acquisition, per Sports Illustrated.
"What they did in Memphis is beyond comprehension," said Popovich. "There should be a trade committee that can scratch all trades that make no sense. I just wish I had been on a trade committee that oversees NBA trades. I'd like to elect myself to that committee. I would have voted no to the L.A. trade."
Leonard spent one year in Toronto and delivered the franchise its first NBA championship. He then signed with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2019 as a free agent at the same time as the franchise traded for George. Both Leonard and George are Southern California natives.
While the Clippers immediately became the darlings of the national media and the favorites to win it all for the 2019-20 season, they would make the Western Conference finals just once with the duo. They haven't advanced past the first round of the playoffs since that trip to the West finals in 2021.
George left L.A. two years ago, and just last week, the Clippers agreed to trade Leonard back to the Raptors for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and draft compensation. But that trade is being held up due to the NBA's continuing investigation into allegations that the Clippers circumvented the salary cap to give Leonard additional money.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Gregg Popovich apparently refused to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Lakers