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The thought of Kawhi Leonard on the Lakers was too much for Doc Rivers. He talked Steve Ballmer when their deal was dead. "We cannot allow that to happen. I told Steve jokingly, 'If that happens, we’re moving the team to Seattle.' I really believed that.” latimes.com/sports/clipper…
Doc Rivers on meeting Kawhi Leonard at Rivers' home in Malibu: "He said, ‘I want to play for you,’ and he pointed at me. He said, ‘Mr. Ballmer, I love the things you do and what you stand for, but your team is not good enough and if you don’t change your team, I’m not coming.’"
Doc on tampering: "We were warned that no more Clippers players, coaches or employees could go to games in Toronto. We were sending guys to go sit the stands. There was nothing wrong with what we were doing, but Steve Ballmer sitting courtside in Toronto seemed a little strange."
The Clippers had prepared a list of possible players to get. "We just showed him guys that we thought would match him and when he saw Paul George’s name he said, ‘I want to play with him.’ We showed him everybody else and he didn’t want to hear it. He just stayed on Paul George."
Doc: “Steve Ballmer was nervous about the picks. I said, ‘Steve, you keep saying six picks for Paul George is insane, but you’re saying it wrong. It’s not six for Paul; it’s six for Paul and Kawhi. So three for each. I would do that.’ You have to look at it in those terms.”
Doc found out the deal was done while he was at Nobu. "I walked back into Nobu with a whole different attitude. Our waiter was a Lakers fan and the news hadn’t broken yet but I knew. He kept telling me, ‘We’re going to get Kawhi’ and I kept saying, ‘I don’t know about that.’"
Doc: “The Lakers had a meeting with Kawhi and they built this whole thing up for him to come to their new practice facility and he said ‘No, you can come to my hotel room.’ But with us he said, ‘Yes, I’ll come to your house.’ It felt like he was telling us he wants to come here."
