Los Angeles Lakers: How a budding LA Clippers feud can save NBA season
By Ronald Agers
It seems that the Los Angeles Lakers are still upset over Kawhi Leonard and how he joined the Clippers.
Kawhi Leonard has been a member of the Los Angeles Clippers for a good little while now, but conveniently details about his free agency get leaked just a few days before the Christmas Day showdown.
A report from Sam Amick and The Athletic about the Kawhi Leonard sweepstakes that happened in this past offseason brought out some serious accusations that will leave possible bad feelings for a long time between the two Los Angeles franchises.
It was reported that Kawhi Leonard’s uncle, Dennis Robertson, may have asked for “extra incentives” from the Lakers, Clippers, and Raptors, which included a private plane and a house.
Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and other members of the Lakers organization are still not happy and “frustration” was described in the piece about how they were treated in free agency by Kawhi, Dennis, and their entire camp.
The Athletic goes into detail on how those lavish requests led Jeanie Buss to feel as if the Lakers were being used as leverage.
"A source with knowledge of the Kawhi-Lakers talks said Robertson made those requests repeatedly to owner Jeanie Buss over the course of three phone calls that spanned several days, and that she made it clear that such perks were illegal and would not be considered. There was even a question raised by Robertson about why Lakers legend Magic Johnson had been given a small piece of Lakers ownership so many years ago, with Buss explaining that the two situations couldn’t have been more different – even beyond the fact that one was legal and the other was not."
The Los Angeles Clippers asked at a specific request for the NBA to conduct a formal investigation to show that the Clippers had not granted any of these requests proposed by Uncle Dennis. There was no wrongdoing found by the league.
Before the game, Kawhi Leonard addressed the situation.
If Lake Show Life asked any NBA fan who Dennis Robertson was, there would be blank faces all the way around. Now if the fans were asked who “Uncle Dennis” was, a totally different situation.
Uncle Dennis is the perfect Clippers version to Rich Paul. Both men have conspiracy theories attached to them. But in reality, they both have power and influence. Both men are considered a nemesis to multiple franchises and they work very quietly behind the scenes.