A lot is being thrown around about tampering and the Lakers feelings being hurt that Kawhi took them for a ride. It is always amazing how Jerry West AKA the logo always seems to skate when he tampers with other team's players. West has a history of tampering the best example being the Shaq heist from Orlando. He also seemed to get Gasol for peanuts from the Grizzlies. Dont know how he came in and scooped KD from OKC. The most recent signing of Kawhi suggests that West may have been up to his old tricks again. It is quite probable that West and Kawhi had hatched a plan to get him to the Clippers long before Kawhi became a free agent. Lets review:
West traded Chris Paul, traded Tobias Harris, and traded Blake Griffin. He was left without a superstar on his team. That is not typical of West. In the early days of free agency 2019 Kawhi the price of the class narrowed teams to Lakers, Clippers, and Toronto. Lakers already had two stars therefore for them Kawhi would have been the icing on the cake. Toronto really had nowhere to go but to wait on Kawhi. It was curious that the Clippers without any stars on their roster would just wait while the stars in the class signed with other teams and not make any moves. It was weird that the Clippers put ALL their eggs in the Kawhi basket. That did not make any sense unless they already knew Kawhi and George were in the bag. Think about it this way, if the Clippers did not get Kawhi who was left on the market? The answer is NOBODY. Jerry West had Kawhi way before free agency, the rest of the play was a devious attempt to weaken the Lakers their main competitors with whom they share an arena. The Lakers are castigating Kawhi for playing them, but deep down they must know they were played by West, the same guy who notoriously laughed at the Lakers for trading them Zubac. Looks like Jerry takes joy in the Lakers inept front office. So what did Jerry West know? He knew Kawhi was going to be a Clipper. When did he know it? Probably around the same time he shipped off Tobias Harris to the sixers.