The Kawhi Leonard drama continues to be a popular topic in basketball discussion circles, and in an exclusive interview with The Action Network from September 10, NBA legend Tim Hardaway Sr. gave his raw, unfiltered take on the hot-button issue.
Action Network senior NBA writer Matt Moore goes straight to the point with his question for Hardaway Sr.: "What’s your reaction to the Kawhi Leonard-Clippers salary-cap investigation?"
To this, Hardaway Sr.'s response was (the article notes that this Q&A has been edited for brevity):
Tim Hardaway Sr. says Kawhi drama is only an issue if you get caught
"Hey, if you can do it, you can do it!Tim Hardaway Sr. via Action Network
If you get away with it, you get away with it. But I tell you this – where there's smoke, there's fire.
If the NBA thinks that you are wrong about doing stuff like that. They’re gonna get you, they're gonna get you.
I say this – I'm not for sure. I'm not sure. I’ve heard things. I heard things, just like a lot of people have heard things, that a lot of that has been going on.
We are talking about the 80s, the 90s. A lot of that has been going on. Under the salary cap, you can't pay 'em this, you can't pay 'em that.
Just don't get caught!
I'm gonna tell you this. Pat Riley tried to pay two people $20 million. Over $20 million a year. They were like, “How the hell are you doing that? And you got these other guys, you're going to pay. You can’t do that! If we find out that you told this guy this and told this guy that, then we're gonna suspend you, we're gonna take this away, fine the team, and a lot of other stuff in ‘96.”"
Again, in the fallout of this drama, it’s important to note that it stems from a 2021 deal Kawhi Leonard secured while with the Clippers, and it does not directly relate to his time in Toronto. However, amid the turmoil, additional context has emerged: some of Leonard and his camp’s demands to the Raptors in an attempt to stay up North were viewed as absurd bargaining tactics, shedding light on how Leonard has been trying to leverage deals in his favor — whether for better or worse — long before this Aspiration fiasco unfolded.
As one Jordanna Clark of Raptors Rapture pointed out, Toronto's refusal to grant Leonard's wishes might have actually saved them from doom.
I really love Hardaway Sr.'s perspective here, in a sense he sort of frames these under-the-table deals as it's only seen as a crime in the NBA's eyes if you get caught red-handed or it's blatantly obvious. Without hesitation, he openly admits to feeling this kind of thing happening for ages, but like a smart interviewee, he avoids going into full detail about which players have been involved. Instead, he boldly speaks on a Pat Riley account from back in the day.
I think it's valuable to hear from a veteran in this kind of situation because, as he mentioned, while the report is a bombshell, no one was really completely taken aback by the news. Organizing side deals and fixing under-the-table negotiations is no secret in sports (looking at you Joe Smith), so maybe hearing such a high-profile name like Kawhi Leonard was somewhat surprising, but then again ... who's to say the next star hasn't done the exact same thing?