After my post a couple weeks ago ranting about how Kawhi Leonard ran his free agency (and broke one of my own blogging rules as a result), it feels quite nice to see that there is talk along the same lines about the magnitude of the coup that he pulled off. You can see more in the link below:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27240776/why-kawhi-leonard-power-move-was-watershed-moment
If the NBA's self-examination leads to changes that prevent outside influences (like a current free agent) from leading a player under contract who otherwise wouldn't request a trade to do so, I'm all for it. You can read more by clicking the link below:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27244254/nba-looking-free-agency-process-sources-say
Reading the next article gives some good insight to how the team owners feel about it. I didn't personally suspect tampering as a possibility in this summer's free agency, but I have long been aware of what feels like a double standard with teams, executives, general managers and coaches getting slammed by the NBA with fines for even the smallest comment, whereas players had way more rope in terms of communicating with other players -- privately or publicly -- before getting disciplined.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27243621/inside-tense-nba-owners-meeting-change-free-agency
Just in the last 20 years, I have seen what I would consider "dangerous precedents" that have been set. First, the Miami Heat coup in 2010, and then what some would consider as such in the Golden State Warriors benefitting from the cap spike to add a superstar to a team that just set a record for wins in the regular season. And now this. I think what has kind of been lost under the shuffle at this point is the fact that Leonard pushed his way out of the unlikeliest of teams -- the Gold-Standard San Antonio Spurs.
[As a side note, I'm still not clear what the heck happened between them. It's one thing if he had been on a team where it was obvious that the ownership was toxic, or the front office, or the coaching staff. But even now, 2 years after the tension first began, people still have a high opinion of San Antonio.]
Given that Leonard pushed his way out of San Antonio, I shouldn't be too surprised at his move. My impression is that it was 50/50 that he would've stayed in Toronto, where he had just won a championship. And I believe that I was right: it wasn't a given that he would stay. Nonetheless, reading through the above articles gives me hope that the NBA will begin to level the playing field in terms of accountability throughout the league, specifically including players to be held to the same standards at team owners, executives, and coaches regarding communications.
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