DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS: Kawhi Leonard saga captivating

There hasn’t been a sports story so intriguing to me as the Kahwi Leonard alleged salary cap circumvention scandal that’s played out across the last year.

For those who haven’t been following, Leonard, a star with the Los Angeles Clippers, was paid millions of dollars by team sponsors for “endorsement” deals, where he wasn’t required to do anything.

He was a “celebrity endorser” for a tree planting company, but did not make any appearances, plant any trees or even make any social media posts about the company, despite being paid more money than Robert Downey Jr., Drake Leonardo DiCaprio and other top stars combined.

An NBA investigation following initial investigative reporting from Pablo Torre, who has done 14 podcast episodes and counting on the story, confirmed the reports and NBA commissioner Adam Silver penalized the team by taking away five first round draft picks, fining ownership and suspending several high ranking members of the Clippers.

Leonard had to pay a $700,000 fine, with his advisor Dennis Robertson, known as Uncle Dennis, banned from doing any business with the league for five years.

The saga has exposed a lot of the problems inside the big-time sports reporting community that have taken hold as of late.

Many commentators, who clearly didn’t have a legal or journalistic background, asked for “a smoking gun,” even as Torre’s reporting clearly outlined the scandal.

Not only does the NBA not need evidence to convict in a court, even if they did, the reporting I saws would have been good enough to vote “guilty” if I were sitting on a criminal jury with the highest required standard. Clippers ownership invested two million into a failing company, which turned around and gave more than $1.5 million to Leonard instead of paying other bills.

People seemed unable to follow what was obvious from Torre, including in an episode focusing on Rhode Island F.C., where the connection to Leonard and the Clippers was weaker than other deals, but it was actually a story about how public money is wasted by stadium construction and how those kinds of deals are made, which used Leonard as a hook.

Others seemed very confused as to why Leonard received such a light penalty, ignoring the possibility that the NBA agreed to a lighter punishment in order to move on, and eliminate any potential appeal from the players’ association.

I’m also waiting for ESPN, who breathlessly reported the NBA had found no wrongdoing by the Clippers a couple weeks ago, to acknowledge and explain how they messed up that story so badly.

Even if the Clippers successfully challenge the penalties in court, the ESPN reporting was just flat out wrong, and a massive miss from some very respected journalists. It seems the reporters were taken in by Clippers public relations, and didn’t do enough to fact check what they were hearing from the team.

There aren’t that many true sports journalists out there, especially as the next generation grows up taking roles with teams to get their foot in the door of sports media.

Hopefully we see a shift and more people follow Torre’s lead in their path to national-level sports reporting.

My begrudging respect for Leonard as a personality has only grown throughout this saga. No doubt other players across sports are given sweetheart deals to do minimal things for team sponsors. Leonard’s stance seemed to be, “If I’m getting paid for a no-show job, I’m doing nothing.”

This is a player who demanded part ownership of the Toronto Maple Leafs during free agency in 2019. He is just as ruthless in his demands off the court as it is on the court, and it’s up to teams to follow the rules and not give into player demands that go around the salary cap.

I’m still confused why a guy who very publicly rejected Toronto in 2019 after winning a championship is so eager to return to Canada.

The lighter in relation punishment is also a way to help the Clippers. They can now trade Leonard to help re-gain that now-missing draft capital. If Leonard was to be punished in a harsher way, his contract would have been rescinded and be free to sign with any team around the league, leaving the Clippers in an even worse position.