Kawhi Leonard was easily the biggest signing in free agency as he just came off one of the best seasons of his career. Leonard led the Toronto Raptors to their first-ever NBA championship and his play gave him legendary status amongst some of the younger NBA fans out there. In the end, Leonard opted to go back home and signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. On the same night as the signing, the Clippers confirmed a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder which brought Paul George to L.A.
In a recent interview with Arash Markazi of The Los Angeles Times, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers spoke about the free agency process and how the meeting with Leonard went. As Rivers explained, Leonard was adamant about playing for the team but demanded they get better.
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“He said, ‘I want to play for you,’ and he pointed at me," Rivers explained. "He said, ‘Mr. Ballmer, I love the things you do and what you stand for, but your team is not good enough and if you don’t change your team, I’m not coming.’”
As soon as Leonard laid out his demands, Rivers says the Clippers got to work and approached Kawhi about George. Leonard immediately fell in love with the idea and they rushed to make a trade. Now, the rest is history and the Clippers have one of the best dynamic duos in the league. Their partnership will be an interesting one to track this season and they should make for some entertaining basketball.
[Via]
