Kawhi Leonard Didn’t Know That the Clippers Were Attending His Games

Last week we learned (via a report from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst) of the Clippers’ bold plan(s) to entice Kawhi Leonard and/or Kevin Durant when both stars hit free agency this summer. That highly ambitious idea (which has been floated before) included this tidbit about the lengths the franchise is willing to go to at least (allegedly) acquire Leonard:

Raptors officials have noticed a Clippers staffer at roughly 75 percent of their games this season including some where Leonard didn’t even play—while the Clippers say they’ve been at only around half of Toronto’s contests. Not only that, but president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank has attended games, a rare sight among the upper echelon of NBA management.

While that would seem to brush right up against the league’s tampering rules, according to an even more recent article from The Athletic‘s Sam Amick (subscription only) Leonard wasn’t even aware that the person saying “hello” to him was Clippers President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank, when Frank did just that during the Raptors’ visit to the Bay to play Golden State last week (also this might be a good time to remind you of both names in that opening sentence).

According to Amick, Leonard wasn’t aware of the front office shot caller who had said ‘hi’ to him, and said “Oh, that was Lawrence Frank?” when Amick pointed it out to him afterward. Leonard also said he was unaware that the Clippers had been attending his games.

For those calling BS on Leonard being ignorant to the fact that it was Frank (who has coached in the NBA for several years), Amick points out that that type of cunning guile isn’t wired into Leonard’s DNA (which you also probably figured if you’d ever read anything about Leonard at all). So either Kawhi’s a lot more devious than previously thought, or the Clippers are wasting some travel dough.

Either way this has to annoy you if you’re a Raptors fan it’s interesting.