Swanson: Kawhi Leonard is a Hall of Fame scam artist who deserves Clippers fans’ boos

Clippers fans, please join the rest of L.A. in booing Kawhi Leonard.

With your whole chests, let him hear it, the entitled scoundrel.

Greedy villain.

Selfish charlatan.

The Clippers’ star and his team found the one NBA franchise that was desperate enough to allegedly acquiesce to all of his out-of-bounds demands, to break the rules if only he would please, please pick them.

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Yearning to be loved in the Lakers’ Los Angeles, the Clippers were easy marks during that 2019 free agency.

Leonard, fresh off winning his second NBA title and Finals MVP, took the Clippers and Steve Ballmer — the NBA’s richest owner, worth $152 billion, per Forbes — for a ride.

Read more: Plaschke: NBA drops the hammer on The Cheatin’ Clippers, and they can’t shed the stink

Investigators have found that Leonard’s camp got the Clippers to agree, according to the findings of a nearly yearlong investigation by Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, to audacious levels of salary cap circumvention.

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Billed as a hometown hero, the All-Star from Moreno Valley apparently arrived with his hand outstretched, demanding all sorts of improper perks, including an extra $10 million annually — in addition to the above-board contracts that paid him between $32 million and $50 million each season.

And then he did his Kawhi laugh all the way to the bank.

Now tack on the NBA’s $30-million fine and five first-round draft picks to the bill as punishment, announced Wednesday.

Those fans in Toronto who’d promised never to let him pay for a meal in their city again — “KaWine and Dine,” they called it — never stood a chance. They should toast their luck.

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The Clippers doth protest, denying all of it. Probably because the investigation’s findings make them out to be not only cheaters, but fools.

The team’s statement: “We vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence.”

And Leonard? He isn’t taking personal accountability, but he’s accepting the NBA’s $700,000 fine and, in a statement, said he blames “lapses in judgment by…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/swanson-kawhi-leonard-hall-fame-110000061.html

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Publish date : 2026-09-03 11:00:00

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