Young: sources tell @ExpressNews that Kawhi Leonard wants to be traded from Spurs

[sasaint]

Erving is a free agent next season and is already clear he wants to play for N.Y.

I thought he said he wanted to play in SA before the Cavs moved him to Boston.

[FireMicoHalili]

Said this a few days ago

Said what exactly? Contrarian edgelord with shaky credibility at best.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

The are y'all on? I would've taken that trade. Kyrie possibly brings in butler in the off-season. Would've kept us in contention.

Agreed, WTf how could they turn that down?!

[RD2191]

Yeah let’s walk the streets of New Orleans to the ASG in a hoodie....cause that’s what superstars do

Let’s also do whatever it takes to reject the possibility of getting offered a 221M contract...,

Keep playing tummy sticks with your alt accounts got

Can you imagine if he got shot or some ?

[coachmac87]

Can you imagine if he got shot or some ?

I mean....PATFO would still get blamed.

[spursistan]

"Done deal."

This gonna drag out to September and page 1400 of the thread and he would still claim "Done Deal" ..

[sasaint]

could just be negotiation. They may revisit it.

Or possibly "Earth is flat" sounds a little too much like something Uncle Dennis would say.

Definitely requires a lot of Pop's re-education.

[coachmac87]

Agreed, WTf how could they turn that down?!

Kyrie walks....

You’re stuck with a “pick”

[r0drig0lac]

I thought he said he wanted to play in SA before the Cavs moved him to Boston.

with a mentally and physically healthy Kawhi Leonard

[BatManu20]

Kyrie's as good as gone next summer once he gets wind of the fact that Ainge tried to trade him already. He seems petty af tbh.

[tonight...you]

In my line of work... seen this kind of stuff more than once.
The ones that give in are the ones that end up bombing.
Watch The Island of Doctor Moreau

This is the quintessential visual garbage of what happens when you straight give in to star power.

[tonight...you]

This gonna drag out to September and page 1400 of the thread and he would still claim "Done Deal" ..

Good. This puss needs to face a firing line. Or he completely pusses out.
Take it there.

[FkLA]

Kyrie's as good as gone next summer once he gets wind of the fact that Ainge tried to trade him already. He seems petty af tbh.

That was my first thought after reading that too, tbh.

[loveforthegame]

The only thing the Spurs are guilty of is enabling this behavior for so long. A shame they couldn’t get the league to intervene before it came to this.

[jehawk81]

Can you imagine if he got shot or some ?

Lol at first, I thought u meant Applesauce getting shot lol... This site would be like 6-8 regular users light with a dead Applesauce + his/her alts

[sasaint]

with a mentally and physically healthy Kawhi Leonard

Oh, yeah... I had a long day...

[spurschamps99030507]

Full podcast notes:

— Spurs wanted sit-down early on to air everything out but were afraid to approach Kawhi’s team because they didn’t want to be perceived as trying to rush him back

— Mike Wright tells the late all-star game story and pins it right on Uncle Dennis. Said traffic was so bad they walked from the hotel to the arena.

— Kawhi’s group feels Spurs are too controlling, but Wright and hosts point out that Uncle Dennis has no frame of reference to compare to. Mike Wright concurs with a statement that Uncle Dennis is “clueless”

— Host says this is a lesson in everything not to do in handling a young superstar

— Host asks if this is, at its core, about lack of trust over the misdiagnosis. Mentions Kawhi also sought a 2nd opinion on his wrist injury in 2014 so this may be a long standing issue between player and team. Mike Wright thinks that’s the essence of it, but the major component is Uncle Dennis fanning the flames. Spurs admit they may have ed up injury diagnosis, but they can’t be sure because they lost control of rehab on Aug 8th. Wright mentions the rumor that Kawhi shopped around for doctors

— Spurs reps were in New York during rehab but had no say or input on rehab at that point

— It’s fair to question what’s going on from Kawhi’s side both from a management perspective and a medical perspective. Spurs were in the dark medically all year.

— There was a point last year when Spurs flew to New York but as soon as they walked in the building, Kawhi’s team “sequestered” him so the Spurs couldn’t see him. Wright said he shouldn’t tell that story but he thinks Kawhi is gone so it doesn’t matter

— What was impetus for Spurs handing over rehab in August? Kawhi felt the rehab exercises were hurting him worse. He went and got multiple opinions, then Spurs handed over rehab

— Spurs could not get a hold of Kawhi when he visited China. Spurs wanted to send team security, but everything changed for them when they couldn’t reach him in China

— Wright says Spurs gave Kawhi an inch by giving up control of rehab, and Kawhi took a mile. Host says of course every team would want to control their franchise player’s rehab. That’s not controlling to want to do that. Wright thinks Spurs were too accommodating in giving up rehab and Kawhi took advantage of them.

— The Spurs still don’t know what they want to do with him. Don’t know if they’ll keep him or when they’ll trade him

— Seems obvious that a path to reconciliation is the Supermax. But is there a guarantee Kawhi and Uncle Dennis won’t pull this again 3 months later? “It’s a band-aid on a gunshot wound.” Wright says too risky to offer a supermax now.

— Co-host says Kawhi’s people really screwed this up. Contrasts him to Lebron in saying that Lebron is not a fool, but Kawhi is being a fool and being played. Ultimately it’s on Kawhi because he has the power to change it

— Wright says the Spurs are going to do what’s best for them regardless. It’s not about what Kawhi wants for them anymore.

— Wright says the Ingram/Kuzma/Hart/Picks package was accurate but he heard Spurs asked for 4 picks and not 2 picks and 2 pick swaps

— Wright said Spurs just want Kawhi alone in a room and can’t get it. Everything is going through Dennis and Spurs aren’t sure what really comes from Kawhi and what’s just Dennis

— All agree it’s just a bad idea to mix family and business

— Host asks if Kawhi is staying off the court because he’s worried teams will be scared off that his level of play has dropped or he’s still injured? Wright said it’s gone off the rails and no one knows. He thinks Kawhi should keep the Uncle on the payroll but just not be represented by him.

— Wright doesn’t think anything gets done anytime soon because the Spurs don’t want to trade him. Both sides in a bad spot

— How much did Pop’s comments contribute to Kawhi’s unhappiness? (Host mistakenly thinks Pop made the “100 times worse” comment). Wright says comments were not meant to be critical of Kawhi. Tony’s ultimate message was “be positive.” Wright was standing there and knew it was going to get exaggerated. Kawhi’s taking offense to that and using that as a reason to want a trade is just an excuse

— Wright says he talked to a high ranking Spurs official 2 days ago and that person did not know the context of the “100 times worse” comment. He knew the quote but had never watched the interview in its entirety for context

— Might be tough to sell vets on Kawhi returning because Kawhi and his team kept giving false dates as to when he’d return. It would be this game, then that game, then that game. Moving target. That’s what led to Ginobili comments. After series with GSW previous year, vets thought the team could be compe ive for a ring and Kawhi said “ it.” Then Kawhi shows up for picture day, leaves before shootaround, and they basically don’t see him again

— Wright knew it was over when Kawhi requested trade. Before that, team thought they could fix it. Wright wonders if Pop would have been able to focus more on repairing the relationship had he not been dealing with aftermath of wife’s death.

— All Kawhi had to say from the beginning is “I don’t want to play in San Antonio.” Instead it’s a littany of excuses for why he wants out. Spurs went out of their way to protect him. How many media markets can your star player go 2 months without making a comment? Once Spurs couldn’t protect him anymore he started looking bad. Wright doesn’t see a reconciliation

— Co-host suggests team promises to trade Kawhi, but explains to him that he has to restore his value by playing. They’ll update him on trade talks every week. Wright says they may not be able to even get to that conversation. He says all the reports about Uncle Dennis are not exaggerations. He can’t even tell most of the stories of the various wild an unorthodox things Uncle Dennis has requested

— Wright says Kawhi wants the Clippers, but he thinks a dark horse team will wind up with him. Clippers are a mismatch as a trade partner. Wright wants him to go to LA though and experience that media so he knows how good he had it in San Antonio. Skipping interviews is not an option in LA. 10x more reporters focused on him, and wait until “Lonzo’s Daddy” says something about him. Will he think the team betrayed him when they don’t protect him from the media like the Spurs did?

[Down Under]

Amin Elhassan said the Kyrie + pick in April

[cjw]

When are the Spurs going to offer to buy back Kawhi jerseys / etc. purchased over the past year like the Patriots did with Aaron Hernandez. Thank god I only bought a crappy shirt that I can always turn inside out when doing yard work.

[TDomination]

The information being provided by Wright is absolutely incredible. When this is all said and done, this story can easily be sold as a book.

[lmbebo]

The information being provided by Wright is absolutely incredible. When this is all said and done, this story can easily be sold as a book.

Apparently he had more? he said on twitter he was going to wait for Kawhi to be traded

[FkLA]

There's absolutely no way this got has the courage to show his face for Team USA camp. After so many acts of cowardice, how can we possibly expect him to suddenly face a hostile situation like that head on?

[Kori Ellis]

Thanks for the podcast recap. Utter craziness. I feel like Kawhi is mentally or emotionally handicapped, and getting fleeced by his "group." I kind of feel sorry for him. I hope he snaps out if it, ditches his Uncle and Impact, and stays in SA. But that seems impossible, considering he's not even allowed to talk to Pop without his Uncle there.

[apalisoc_9]

Thanks for the podcast recap. Utter craziness. I feel like Kawhi is mentally or emotionally handicapped, and getting fleeced by his "group." I kind of feel sorry for him. I hope he snaps out if it, ditches his Uncle and Impact, and stays in SA. But that seems impossible, considering he's not even allowed to talk to Pop without his Uncle there.

No confirmation these stories are even true.

[tonight...you]

The information being provided by Wright is absolutely incredible. When this is all said and done, this story can easily be sold as a book.

The only thing holding his family back is the public humiliation (and nobody there, including his ridiculously stupid agent haven't thought of it), otherwise they could bag hundreds of millions.
Trust.