On ESPN today Stephen A Smith claimed Kawhi had blackmailed the Clippers subtly shifting the blame to Kawhi and fully away from Ballmer This follows an established pattern as he both blamed Kawhi for taking Ballmers money and held Ballmer blameless when the story came out

Stephen A Smith in 2019 on allegations against ClippersKawhi - I'm here to tell you right now we don't care we don't care SAS is now outraged at Kawhi for supposedly blackmailing the Clippers

Pablo Torre says the NBA approached Steve Ballmer told him they found wrongdoing and tried to get him to admit to it and accept the punishment Instead Ballmer chose to fight it so the NBA turned around and found a way to settle the matter with Kawhi and the NBPA

Quotes from Brian Windhorst Tim MacMahon Zach Lowe Chris Mannix and Jon Krawczynski describing how Clippers acted and lied personally to the media during the investigation Krawczynski It was a behind the scenes ferocious defense that was accusatory to anyone who dared question them

Stephen A Smith on Kawhi Hes a gangster I mean to sit up therehe broke the rules got caught pointed the finger at somebody else threw the organization under the bus got his money and left the country I mean damn how much better can it get than that

Tim MacMahon On the Clippers lying about Kawhi Leonard's health following dismissal from Team USA practice in July 2024 The Clippers organizational philosophy was kissing Kawhi's butt regardless of circumstances and factsThe guiding light was Find Kawhi's butt plant your lips on it

Charania I had one executive tell me last night that the Clippers were essentially acting like a power agent brokering deals for Kawhi Leonard That's millions and millions of cash flow coming into Kawhi By mid-2021 Kawhi had pocketed tens of millions of dollars in no-show endorsement deals