Uncle Dennis has struck again.
Kawhi Leonard is officially no longer part of the Toronto Raptors franchise after he took his talents to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Days after his announcement, more details have emerged as to why he did not go back to Canada and it seems it has a lot to do with his uncle.
In a report from TSN, it states that Uncle Dennis had “unreasonable” requests for the Raptors, which made team president Masai Ujiri become extremely suspicious about Kawhi’s intentions.
That confidence began to waver after they met with Leonard and his uncle Dennis Robertson in Toronto last Wednesday, sources told TSN. That’s when they first questioned the intentions of Leonard’s camp.
According to sources, Leonard and his camp – namely Uncle Dennis – asked for a lot from the Raptors in that meeting, things players don’t generally ask for in standard contract negotiations.
In some cases, they were asking for things that Ujiri – one of the most well-compensated executives in the league – wouldn’t have even had at his disposal. Their requests were “unreasonable”, a source said, which made the Raptors wonder whether Leonard was seriously considering them at all.
As far as Kawhi being upfront with Ujiri and the Raptors…
“I think he was,” Ujiri responded, before pausing. “Kawhi was.”
“I know what we’re dealing with here and I appreciate what the process was,” he responded. “I know free agency, I know how it works. It’s not my first rodeo. You know things are going to go up and down. This was a different kind of free agency. It was high stakes and we understood that.”
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It was always supposed to be a 1-year rental for the Toronto Raptors after they made the trade, but after winning the NBA Championship, it made the process that much more harder.
In the end, Kawhi went home to Southern California.
