Some Best Guesses At These Mystery "Unreasonable" Requests That Kawhi's Camp Gave The Raptors
(TSN) – The Raptors are the champs, and they’re carrying themselves like it at Las Vegas’ annual Summer League, but Leonard is very much the elephant in the room. Without him their chances of defending the title are slim. It’s a strange and unprecedented reality they find themselves in – celebrating the past while looking ahead to an uncertain future.
Still, you wouldn’t know it from listening to team president Masai Ujiri, who arrived in Vegas on Tuesday after a brief trip to Africa for a personal matter.
“Honestly, it’s on to the next,” Ujiri said, speaking publicly for the first time since Leonard made his decision early Saturday morning. “This is the NBA and this is how it works. I always say there’s no time to go out and cry. You can’t hide under the table and cry. Honestly, I’ve lost no sleep. I’m not disappointed. It’s on to what’s next. I’m telling Raptors fans and everybody, don’t lose one day of sleep, one second of sleep. We’re going to be just fine. We’re going to be all right.”
Understanding the unique nature of this particular recruiting process, the Raptors prepared for both scenarios – if Leonard chose to return they would run it back and try to repeat, if he left they would be forced to regroup on the fly.
They were confident going into free agency and remained confident until late in the process. That confidence began to waver after they met with Leonard and his uncle Dennis Robertson in Toronto last Wednesday, sources told TSN. That’s when they first questioned the intentions of Leonard’s camp.
Was Leonard upfront with Ujiri and the Raptors throughout the process?
“I think he was,” Ujiri responded, before pausing. “Kawhi was.”
Was anybody not?
“I know what we’re dealing with here and I appreciate what the process was,” he responded. “I know free agency, I know how it works. It’s not my first rodeo. You know things are going to go up and down. This was a different kind of free agency. It was high stakes and we understood that.”
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The natural assumption is that Ujiri was making reference to Uncle Dennis.
Robertson has a reputation for being hard to deal with and would have been hands on throughout the process. According to sources, Leonard and his camp – namely Uncle Dennis – asked for a lot from the Raptors in that meeting, things players don’t generally ask for in standard contract negotiations.
In some cases, they were asking for things that Ujiri – one of the most well-compensated executives in the league – wouldn’t have even had at his disposal. Their requests were “unreasonable”, a source said, which made the Raptors wonder whether Leonard was seriously considering them at all.
Now that the dust has settled and Kawhi has departed, we’re starting to hear bits and pieces of how everything went down from the Raptors side. It’s not all that surprising that we’re hearing about these “unreasonable” requests coming from Uncle Dennis yet have no idea what they actually are. For a team like TOR that seemed pretty willing to do whatever they could to keep Kawhi, how crazy could something be to make it “unreasonable”? We know about the potential Westbrook/PG13 trade that never materialized, and honestly I think that was more a leverage play to get more out of the Clippers than a real possibility, so I don’t think that’s what is being talked about here.
That’s why it’s now up to us on the internet to speculate what on earth Uncle Dennis could have been demanding. Here’s my best guess
1. Promise of partial ownership of the Raptors
Is this even legal? No clue, I’m pretty sure you can’t give a player potential ownership in a contract offer for when he’s done playing. But we have to think outside the box with this one and things that are “unreasonable”, and to me that fits. You saw that part about asks that Ujiri wouldn’t have at his disposal, what on earth could that be if not ownership? Honestly if that’s what is was, I don’t get the big deal. Break him off a couple percentages and then enjoy winning more titles together. Seems like a win win for everyone so what was the hold up.
2. Forcing everyone to eat bull penis
Does anyone know if Masai Ujiri is a vegetarian or anything? Maybe this was a prove how much you want me scenario where they were forcing people to eat bull penis pizza. Again, this is something I feel like you just bite the bullet and do, but you don’t fuck around when it comes to vegetarians and eating meat. That’s a lifestyle thing that some take very very seriously. Kawhi is such a weird dude this makes no sense, but maybe they knew people wouldn’t oblige and that was their way out.
3. Demanded a no trade clause
This one is way less exciting, but I’m pretty sure there are 0 players in the NBA right now with a full no trade clause. Not even LeBron. They basically don’t exist anymore, and maybe the Raptors front office wasn’t willing to do it simply for the fact that Kawhi’s contract was going to have player options, if they knew he wasn’t going to stay they could flip him. Giving him that no trade clause would bone them. Granted they got boned anyway because he left, but I can understand not wanting to concede and giving Kawhi that type of power.
4. Free tickets/endless concessions for friends and family
Ujiri talked about how he became suspicious when Uncle Dennis started asking for things that usually don’t come up in negotiations, so maybe it was just a shit ton of free tickets and endless concessions? Players usually have to buy tickets for friends and family, and we all know how expensive food can be at the stadium. Kawhi was getting offers for free shit all over the city of Toronto, so maybe his camp wanted to take it to another level and get the same treatment at the arena
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5. Uncle Dennis and friends could fly with the team on the plane
The old Tim Duncan request. Remember Duncan goes to Orlando way back when if Doc Rivers wasn’t such a dick about letting his wife join him on team plane rides. We know Kawhi keeps his circle small, so maybe they wanted that same privilege. This was also something that popped up in CLE when LeBron and Kyrie were there, so it doesn’t seem that far out. I also wouldn’t call that “unreasonable” though, so maybe he demanded his OWN plane for friends and family. That’s way more of a power move, plus Drake got one.
6. A cut of ticket sales/TV ratings money
Listen no player was more responsible for making Toronto fans actually care about basketball more than Kawhi Leonard. Attendance went through the roof, merch was bought, TV ratings skyrocketed, why shouldn’t Kawhi get a cut? Another situation where Ujiri didn’t have the power to grant and nobody in the league has that type of deal so I would classify that request as “unreasonable”. Again, who gives a shit just let him have whatever he wants and enjoy the boatload of money that comes with having Kawhi on board, but that would be pretty crazy.
Either way, I need to know what these ridiculous requests were. I need to know if the Raptors just bitched out or if they truly were outrageous requests where they had no choice. Shit that Kawhi’s camp knew the Raptors couldn’t do, so it was an easy break for them. Sadly I don’t think we’ll ever know the specifics, so let me hear your best guesses.