So Kawhi Leonard Saga Continues .....

 

The Saga of the Kawhi Leonard continues and we are still waiting.....

Let's jump into the basics Kawhi Leonard was supposed to be traded to the Toronto Raptors from the LA Clippers. Well, it aint happened yet due to a developing investigation. (What???) Here are the details and you can make your own judgement. 

So... Kawhi Leonard was supposed to be involved in a big trade that would bring him back to the Toronto Raptors organization. Kawhi Leonard was a major component in the reason of Toronto Raptors winning the 2019 NBA Championship. In this trade LA Clippers would receive players Brandon Ingram, Gradel Dick and two unprotected first round draft picks (2031 and 2033, and a 2027 pic swap and two second round draft picks.  (My opinion this is crazy, for Kawhi Leonard, we talking about moody Kawahi Leonard)

This whole trade has been placed on the shelf, due to a massive intensive NBA investigation into the LA Clippers for allegedly circumvention of the salary cap. This trade was agreed on June 30, 2026 and now it is in a stalled category. Due to the developments Toronto has now decided to back out of the deal due to the NBA stating that completing the deal means impending discipline against Kawhi and a multi game suspension or the voiding of his contract.  Toronto would be on the losing end if that transpired, they would have given up so much with nothing in return, so they have decided to rescind the possible trade. 

The NBA investigation is regarding a four-year $28 million endorsement contract Kawhi signed in 2022 with the green banking company Aspiration which now has gone bankrupt. The NBA is reviewing if the Clippers owner Steve Ballmer it the endorsement deal was a "no-show" or a way to hide and funnel extra funds under the table to Kawhi as compensation outside the set official salary cap. 

Both parties Ballmer and Kawhi have described their innocence in this issue and are arguing that they both were both duped by the co-founder of Aspirations who is already serving a stint of 14 years in a federal prison over another unrelated fraud crime.

While it seems like this investigation is in slow drive the NBA Commissioner Adam Sliver was hoping for that there would be a conclusion before the 2026-2027 season. It is starting to feel as if that doesn't look like the case. While we don't know the findings so far in the investigation, we can just say Toronto dodged a bullet.  Drake, you can't help your boy back to Toronto.