The newly created NBA rivalry in the city of Los Angeles will help us kick off the upcoming season in less than a month, but the details about what exactly happened this summer are still trickling out. And it looks even more like the Lakers, while they were in the mix, were never Kawhi Leonard’s ideal choice of where to play.
L.A. Clippers head coach Doc Rivers revealed that Leonard refused to meet the Lakers at their practice facility, where they had planned to wow the 2019 Finals MVP with an audacious display. Instead, Leonard insisted they come to his hotel room. Rivers apparently learned this when Leonard and his representatives met Rivers and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer at Rivers’ Malibu home. according to Arash Markazi of the L.A. Times.
We had a meeting with Kawhi at my house in Malibu and we felt we had the inside position,” Rivers said. “The Lakers had a meeting with Kawhi and they built this whole thing up for him to come to their new practice facility and he said, ‘No, you can come to my hotel room.’ But with us he said, ‘Yes, I’ll come to your house.’ When we heard that it felt like he was telling us he wants to come here.”
There have been several reports about Leonard allegedly leading the Raptors and Lakers on, even asking the Lakers to hold off on officially calling in the Anthony Davis trade to give Leonard more time. While we wait for more of the details of this past summer to come out, what we do know is that the feelings that were trampled on this summer will only add to the great basketball matchup in Hollywood this season.
