Los Angeles Lakers fans may blame Magic Johnson for not getting Kawhi Leonard. Maybe they were just getting bad intel and ran with it.
When things don’t go right in Laker Nation, somebody has to take the blame for it. In this case, Magic Johnson got most of the fingers pointed at him for the reported dysfunction that was going on in the front office.
When Paul George sent out mixed messages that span from which team he loved growing up, he opened himself up for the criticism of Lakers fans.
First. he can do an ESPN documentary saying he can envision being in a Lakers uniform as a kid, then turn around and say he was a Clippers fan growing up. That’s all well and good, but then the message gets murkier when he says he’s a Kobe fan. Good luck selling that to NBA fans.
Kawhi Leonard does not have this problem. He stated the one thing he wanted since he wanted out of San Antonio. He wanted to go home to Los Angeles. That’s it.
Maybe the mixed message was relayed by Fox Sports’ NBA analyst, Chris Broussard.
Nothing against Broussard and his work, but he basically gassed up the Lakers faithful (Check out Shannon Sharpe and his hopeful co-signing) with his daily reports from his sources and percentages of the Lakers landing Kawhi Leonard.
Man, it went on for months. While Kawhi Leonard was in the playoffs stating he would make his decision after the season, Chris Broussard persisted that he was going to be a Laker.
At that time, no one knew where Leonard was going. Why? Because Kawhi’s camp has absolutely no leaks. But when it got down to the longest week in recent NBA free agent history while the decision was still not reported, Chris Broussard had his theories and shared them on air.
After Leonard shocked the NBA world with the decision to play for the Clippers. Check out the Michael Jackson like moonwalk the Monday after.
Lake Show Life had no more of a clue of Kawhi Leonard’s intentions than anyone else, but we did know that as long as Jerry West was a member of the Clippers organization, they always had a chance. It is known as the “Jerry West” effect.
Now that the Clippers have two stars in the fold with George and Leonard, players that were coveted by the Lakers, it now seems that the snubbing touched a nerve with the Lakers fans. Let’s take a look at how Lakers fans showed their feelings at times over the summer.