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Oceanside Pier, thirty seconds

Friday, July 12, 2019

Kawhi Baby

Kyle Kuzma
I am a fairweather Laker fan. I loved Wilt, Goodrich, West, Baylor, absolutely adored the Pat Riley Showtime Lakers of Magic, Wilkes, Worthy and Kareem. Ditto Fish, Byron, Coop, McAdoo and Thompson.

I was never a fan of Phil Jackson and the Triangle, in any city it operated in and had a tepid appreciation at best for Shaq and Kobe. The last few years have been really terrible, so happy the Ball experiment is over and now somebody else's problem.

I have been shifting allegiances the last couple years, followed Ok City for a while and the Spurs. When LeBron went to the Lakers I looked forward to their resurgence but the roster had no shooters and they absolutely sucked. Kevin Durant was my favorite player until he went to the Warriors, a team I despise.

I was happy when the Lakers obtained the services of the talented Anthony Davis, although they had to mortgage their future to do it. Less happy when Magic took his leave.  When it looked like they were going to get Kawhi Leonard, an Aztec I regularly saw up close and personal in college, I was stoked.

But it now looks like Kawhi played them, in the most dishonest and manipulative way possible. He pretended to be interested but never had any intention of signing with them, got Anthony Davis to give up $4,000,000 so that he could sign, money that he would never get back, and caused the Lakers to sit on their hands and miss all sorts of free agents in the interim.

It was almost like he had already signed with the hated Clippers, and was intentionally harming the Lakers by feigning interest since they would soon be his crosstown opponent, even though he was still technically a free agent.

It seems like very bad form to me. Definitely bad faith. Many of his cohorts, from Chase Tapley to Danny Green, said that he would never have even considered playing with LeBron, but he sold the fabricated interest perfectly and hurt the purple and gold as best as he could. This seems beyond the pale of normal sportsmanship to me, to "do" a team that is sincerely wooing you.

So he looked for a Robin for his Batman, tried KD and Kyrie, was rebuffed and then settled on Paul George. I am sure that the Clippers will be great. I just don't think I can root for him again because it seems like he is so clearly dishonest and unethical. He crossed the line with Anthony Davis. He took advantage of his altruism and generosity. It was selfish and mean spirited and I doubt that the Lakers will ever forget it. Kawhi has left a bad taste in San Antonio and probably now in Toronto. Karma is a funny thing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was disappointed Kawhi left the Spurs and now I'm disappointed he left Toronto. I don't know what is happening with the NBA. These players are making so much money it is beyond comprehension, especially the upper tier players. The second tier players are not doing bad also, but far less than the upper tier players. Talk about income inequality. Seems like the upper tier players are calling all the shots nowadays, although management makes the ultimate decision.

wm

Kent said...

The tail wags the dog. Get over it.
Donald sterling was ousted as a racist a hole.

Anonymous said...

Robert
Spoken like a true Lakers fan You conveniently left out AD demanding a trade with 1.5 years left on his contract leaving millions of Pelican fans who had bought onto the AD era standing in the lurch. Its one thing to go where you will as a free agent and team up with your buddies but not while you are under contract, talk about karma? Didn't Lew Alcindor do the same thing? I despise the Lakers as much as you do the Clippers..well maybe not as much! I don't like the Clippers either for Sterling and now Kawhi but the whole Kobe the rapist thing leaves me dry especially after the special Showtime Magic years. Funny how you can love a player but if he goes to the enemy bye bye! I loved KD now I hope he is never back to 100%

ml