A outstanding former NBA participant is talking out towards Kawhi Leonard’s punishment as a part of the league’s investigation into cap circumvention by the LA Clippers.
Danilo Gallinari, a 14-year NBA veteran who performed with the Clippers for the 2 seasons earlier than Leonard’s arrival and was traded as a part of the blockbuster deal for Paul George that sealed Leonard’s free-agent determination, stated he believes Leonard ought to must pay again the cash he made in these no-show sponsorship offers, not merely the $700,000 wonderful issued by the NBA.
“In my view, contemplating he altered the trajectory of my profession and landed me in a large number by delivery me out of Los Angeles, he deserves to pay the complete quantity. He must pay each single cent of that cash he took,” Gallinari stated in Italian on the most recent episode of his “A Cresta Alta” podcast. “He ought to provide it to charity — since he has to pay it anyway, let it go to an excellent trigger. However at first, he completely has to pay it.”
The NBA discovered that Leonard, by means of his consultant and uncle Dennis Robertson, pressured the Clippers to acquire “off-court earnings alternatives” and didn’t reimburse the Clippers for private bills. The NBA’s report on the Clippers doesn’t specify how a lot cash Leonard made in these sponsorship offers. Leonard signed a four-year, $28 million sponsorship cope with Aspiration and was granted $20 million price of fairness within the now-bankrupt firm. Leonard additionally signed offers with Boingo, Daktronics and Lockton, in response to the NBA’s report.
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Whereas Gallinari admitted his season with the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder was “incredible” for him, he stated that Leonard ought to nonetheless give again the endorsement cash he earned as restitution for upending his and different gamers’ careers.
“I used to be the one who in the end paid the worth,” he stated. “I used to be the one who suffered the implications.”
“The reality is, we ended up taking some nice paths — my yr in Oklahoma was incredible — however my NBA journey wasn’t formed by a GM or an proprietor, prefer it was (after I was traded by) the Knicks (in 2011); it was formed by a participant. A participant who determined the staff wasn’t working and wished one thing else. And that set off a sequence of occasions that, as you’ll be able to see, have been removed from regular.”
The Clippers acquired Gallinari, then 28, from the Denver Nuggets in a three-team commerce in the summertime of 2017 and subsequently handed him a three-year, $65 million extension. A season later, Gallinari averaged a career-high 19.8 factors per recreation, serving to lead a Clippers staff that was in transition to a stunning 48-34 document and the West’s No. 8 seed.
However LA had structured its roster with the intent to pursue Leonard, a Los Angeles native, as a free agent that summer time. The staff even dealt Tobias Harris, its main scorer on the time, on the February 2019 commerce deadline to amass future belongings and younger gamers it may use to assist construct round Leonard and/or one other large free-agent signing in the event that they got here to the Clippers. Gallinari upped his recreation after Harris’ departure, averaging 22.4 factors after the All-Star break and practically 20 within the Clippers’ six-game first-round playoff loss to the Golden State Warriors.
In the course of the ensuing summer time, the Clippers realized they wanted to amass a working mate for Leonard to make sure he would select them over the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors. They agreed to commerce Gallinari, promising rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 5 first-round picks and two first-round choose swaps to the Thunder to amass George. Leonard agreed to signal with the Clippers shortly thereafter.
Gallinari subsequently performed one season with the Thunder, serving to to cause them to the 2020 playoffs, earlier than signing with the Atlanta Hawks as a free agent. He performed two seasons with Atlanta, signed with the Boston Celtics in the summertime of 2022, then missed the 2022-23 marketing campaign after tearing his ACL. He performed for the Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks within the 2023-24 season earlier than retiring from the NBA.
A former lottery choose of the New York Knicks, Gallinari averaged 14.9 factors and 4.7 rebounds per recreation in 14 seasons with the Knicks, Nuggets, Clippers, Thunder, Hawks, Celtics, Wizards, Pistons and Bucks. He additionally starred for the Italian nationwide staff earlier than retiring in 2025.
He hosts the “A Cresta Alta” podcast alongside along with his brother, Federico Gallinari, a former participant improvement coach for the Detroit Pistons and G League’s Motor Metropolis Cruise.
— Melanie Anzidei contributed to this story.
