The man suing Jerry West and the Clippers for his alleged role in landing Kawhi Leonard says West left him a voicemail message in 2019 acknowledging their relationship and trashing the Lakers in the process. Johnny Wilkes tells TMZ Sports ... West left the voicemail for him on July 1, 2019, around 2 PM ... "expressing concern that Kawhi would choose the Lakers over the Clippers." Wilkes says, "In the same message, Jerry thanked me for all my efforts in getting Kawhi to sign with the Clippers." TMZ Sports has obtained the voicemail -- in which a man who sounds like West says, "Hey there, this is Jerry calling. I really want to thank you a lot for trying to help. I heard this morning that everyone over in the Lakers camp thinks they're gonna get him." "I just find it hard to believe that he would want to go to that sh*t show where he would not even be ... wouldn't even get his name in the paper and he wouldn't be the face of the franchise that's for sure." "He might be the best player on the team, but hope things are well and again, I really really appreciate everything you've done." The voicemail continues ... "I will keep you apprised of what's going on. But, I do want to get together with you privately and would love to take you to dinner and even Sam if he's around. So I can at least pay my respects to you guys for being so generous and helpful. Take care, talk to you sometime soon. Bye-bye." We're told the "Sam" in question is Sam Watson -- who Wilkes claims was also involved in the effort to land Kawhi with the Clippers. As we previously reported, West has DENIED any wrongdoing connected to the signing of Kawhi Leonard -- but when contacted about this specific piece of audio, neither West nor the Clippers would comment. The Clippers previously issued a statement saying, "The lawsuit filed by Johnny Wilkes is replete with inaccuracies and the allegations are baseless. The Clippers are fully cooperating with the NBA in its investigation, which is standard when these types of allegations are made. "[The Clippers] are providing the NBA with evidence that the allegations are false."
He will be a free agent after this season if he chooses to opt out. The Clippers signed Paul George hoping that would make Leonard more likely to stay. Leonard will be 29 years old as a free agent because he signed a short extension.
What if... Tillman has such distate for Popovich and his values that he wants to bring in Kawhi to win another title with a Texas team other than San Antonio? Trading Russ and Harden is really just about building a new super team around Kawhi. Pretty clear all the other recent articles are just a smoke screen for that to happen. Why won't people just shut up and listen?
No I meant his contract about to be invalidated making him a FA. That's what happened Stern did with Joe Smith and facked Minny badly. They lost tons of picks for years.
Hard to believe a wrongful termination suit against an NBA team is really big news, unless there's some kind of pattern. This stuff happens at companies all the time. Ideally, the product on the floor is exciting enough that people could focus on that.
NBA will sweep this under the rug just like they did with the Mavs' sexual discrimination and Spurs Josh Primo case.
