When the Los Angeles Lakers landed LeBron James in free agency during the summer of 2018, the next step was pretty obvious. Add a second superstar next to LeBron and get back into immediate contention.
They first wanted to land Paul George in free agency, but he decided to stay in Oklahoma City. So they pivoted to the next target. And it was Kawhi Leonard, who wanted out of the San Antonio Spurs.
The problem? Gregg Popovich had no interest in helping one of his biggest rivals. Former Spurs vice president of strategic research Kirk Goldsberry confirmed on the Bill Simmons podcast what NBA fans had long suspected: Pop shut down any potential Kawhi Leonard trade to the Lakers.
“As part of the front office that sent [Kawhi] to Toronto, it’s almost a full-circle moment. Don’t trade great players to your rivals. I remember the Lakers were calling us in 2018, ‘Can we get Kawhi Leonard from you?’ And Pop was like, f**k no. We’re not trading our best player to the team we think is a real threat to our championship hopes over here.”
“So we sent him to the Eastern Conference, to Toronto, for many reasons, but one of them was like, we’re not here to help our rivals in Los Angeles.”
“One of the things we knew back in 2018 was that he was gonna end up in Los Angeles a year or so later. He was gonna go to Southern California, so I’m actually kind of surprised given that, the emotional reasons he wanted to be in Southern California, that now he’s back in Canada.”
“Of all this stuff, it was like, dude, I thought you wanted to live in L.A.? I thought that was the whole thing.”
These comments confirm years of rumors around one of the biggest “what-if” scenarios in NBA history. At that time, Kawhi’s relationship with the Spurs was completely done. The two-time DPOY had appeared in just nine games in the 2017-18 season and made it clear he wanted out.
The Lakers thought they had a proper chance. Not only had they signed LeBron, but Kawhi was also a Southern California native who wanted to come home. But Pop was not gonna let that happen and sent him to Canada, as the Spurs traded Leonard to the Toronto Raptors.
Kawhi spent just one season with the Raptors, delivering the greatest season in franchise history as he led the Raptors to their first NBA championship in 2019. He then signed with the Los Angeles Clippers as a free agent.
The Lakers then shifted direction, as they waited a year and acquired Anthony Davis in 2019. That move paid off, as Davis and LeBron led the franchise to the 2020 NBA championship.
But it would have been great to see a LeBron-Kawhi pairing in 2018, when both of them were at the height of their powers. They would have been the league’s most dominant duo and could have won multiple titles together.
Rather than risk watching Leonard help LeBron restore the Lakers to title contention, Popovich sent his superstar to another country.
In the end, Leonard still made his way back to Los Angeles after winning a title in Toronto. And Pop got exactly what he wanted: the Spurs never had to watch one of their greatest players suit up for the Lakers.
