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Following the announcement of Kawhi Leonard's decision to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers, the timing prompted several conspiracy theories pertaining to how this move was a preconceived series of events with the primary objective of sabotaging the plans of the team's crosstown rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers.
However, as it turns out, Kawhi ending up with the Clippers was anything but a sure thing weeks before the agreement was made official. As a matter of fact, seeing how ecstatic Leonard was during Toronto's championship parade actually made LA believe it had already lost out to the Raptors in the race for the reigning Finals MVP's signature:
“The Raptors did everything right,” a Clippers official told Sportsnet's Michael Grange. “We saw the parade, saw those pictures and figured that was it. We were done.”
It isn't hard to believe what this anonymous Clippers team executive is saying here, as in truth, the less troublesome path for Kawhi would have been to re-sign with the Raptors. Not only had he acclimatized well with the team and the organization, but also, he had a whole nation behind him.
However, Leonard obviously had other plans in mind, and after a few weeks, he finally announced his intentions to take his talents to Hollywood. It wasn't to the Lakers, though, as Kawhi opted to build his own superteam with the Clippers, bringing along former Oklahoma City Thunder season MVP finalist Paul George with him in what was easily the coup of the summer.
