By Marilyn Dubinski | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-09-18 02:11:02
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
我知道，这本是一段难以真正翻篇的往事，但随着科怀·伦纳德 (Kawhi Leonard) 在快船队掀起的全新风波，过去的一切又被重新摆上了台面。简单回顾一下，播客主巴勃罗·托雷 (Pablo Torre) 在备受争议的Aspiration公司的破产文件中发现了一些材料，这些材料表明，快船老板史蒂夫·鲍尔默 (Steve Balmer) 据称通过投资该公司，以一份“空头”赞助合同的形式向伦纳德支付了高达4800万美元，从而规避了工资帽。
此后，其他潜在的确凿证据也相继浮出水面，包括快船小老板丹尼斯·王 (Dennis Wong) 在这家濒临倒闭的公司正艰难地试图兑现欠伦纳德的175万美元付款时，本人竟“碰巧”投资了200万美元。而鲍尔默方面，他坚称自己是无辜的，反而声称自己也是受害者，被一家公司诈骗了——而该公司的老板现在正因欺诈罪锒铛入狱。NBA已聘请一家顶级律师事务所进行调查，根据调查结果，快船队可能面临严重后果，包括巨额罚款、失去选秀权，或在最极端的情况下，终止伦纳德的合同（这将使他成为自由球员，能够与任何球队签约，甚至可能签下一份廉价合同，这或将颠覆整个联盟的格局）。
那么，这和马刺队又有什么关系呢？嗯，那些我们在2019年就已知晓、但大都被掩盖的人尽皆知的秘密，如今又重回聚光灯下，这不禁让人质疑，2018年是否发生了更多我们闻所未闻的内幕。早在伦纳德随多伦多猛龙队夺得2019年总冠军并成为自由球员时，人们就知道他的舅舅兼“经纪人”丹尼斯·罗伯逊 (Dennis Robertson) 在自由市场中至少向猛龙队和洛杉矶湖人队索要违规利益，包括球队或其关联公司（如多伦多枫叶队）的所有权股份、一架可供7天24小时随时使用的私人飞机，以及其他只有持牌球员经纪人才能享有的特权，而罗伯逊并非持牌经纪人。
另一个算不上秘密的秘密是，伦纳德曾希望，甚至要求与保罗·乔治 (Paul George) 联手——但这笔交易无论是湖人还是猛龙，都缺乏意愿和/或筹码去完成。然而，快船队却同意了——这或许最终害了他们自己——只要伦纳德签约，他们就将现任MVP兼NBA总冠军谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) 送到雷霆，换来已过巅峰的乔治。这笔交易效果并不理想，伦纳德和乔治很少能同时保持健康出战，在后者离队前，他们总共只一起赢得了三轮季后赛系列赛。
你知道科怀还要求哪支球队交易来PG13吗？没错，就是马刺队。早在2019年，伦纳德就直言不讳地透露，他曾“请求”马刺队交易得到乔治。马刺很可能拒绝了，因为他们当时阵中已有拉马库斯·阿尔德里奇 (LaMarcus Aldridge)，并且对他非常忠诚（他是球队在现代篮球时代于自由市场上签下的第一位大牌球员，而且球队与他也经历过一段内部风波），再加上步行者当时索要的筹码可能会更高。
科怀要求球队为他交易来某位特定球员，这本身算不上什么大事——如今，球星们不择手段地联手早已司空见惯——但这确实引出了一个问题：如果伦纳德和丹尼斯叔叔在成为自由球员时向至少三支其他球队提出了要求，谁又能保证他们没有向马刺队提出过同样的违规利益要求呢？
尽管有些人可能会说：“这都无所谓了，我们现在有维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama)了”，诸如此类，但事实上，这件事至关重要。这场风波对马刺的声誉造成了至今仍在的打击。时至今日，他与马刺的决裂仍被定义为对其膝盖/股四头肌伤势的医疗管理不当（有时会委婉地称之为“分歧”），尽管已有证据表明马刺是正确的（他的伤病是慢性的，无法通过手术修复）。谁又能保证，对手的管理层不会用同样的说辞来游说自由球员，告诉潜在的目标：“看看科怀的遭遇。你真的想把自己的医疗未来交到他们手中吗？”
早在2018年，马刺队就曾通过ESPN透露过部分内情，但给人的感觉是，他们从未真正站出来为自己辩护，而是选择默默承受打击，翻篇前行。这在某种程度上可以理解：NBA是一个球员联盟，尽管马刺声誉卓著，但在与丹尼斯叔叔的公关战中已然落于下风，又何必让情况变得更糟呢？更不用说，他们，或者至少是格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich)，很可能仍然喜爱并尊重伦纳德（比如“嘘声门”事件就是证明），他们不想毁掉他的职业生涯，也不愿因此承受随之而来的公关打击。
然而，七年过去了，那个“只想打球”的安静球员的伪装正在被撕下。他的声誉已经一落千丈，即便这主要是他舅舅的错，所以，马刺队是时候该停止顾及他的感受，开始为自己着想了。如果当年确实存在任何违规要求，他们就应该大声说出来，彻底修复自己的声誉，因为这真的依然重要。
此外，马刺之所以没有因为他造成的损害而至今仍在重建模式中挣扎，唯一的原因就是在正确的年份，一颗极其幸运的乒乓球的弹跳，否则，他们终结季后赛荒（目前因这一切而成为NBA第二长的记录）的希望将不会如此光明。
点击查看原文：The Spurs should come forward if Uncle Dennis asked for impermissible benefits
The Spurs should come forward if Uncle Dennis asked for impermissible benefits
I know, it’s water under a bridge that refuses to fully drain, but the whole new Kawhi Leonard Saga with the Clippers has brought everything from the past back to light. As a quick recap, podcaster Pablo Torre has uncovered documents from the bankruptcy filings of controversial company Aspiration that suggest Clippers owner Steve Balmer allegedly circumvented the salary cap by using his investments in the company to pay Leonard up to $48 million for a no-show sponsorship deal.
Other potential smoking guns have since been revealed, including Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong randomly investing $2 million himself as the failing company the was struggling to fulfill a $1.75 million payment that was owed to Leonard. For his part, Balmer continues claim his innocence, instead saying he is a victim who was defrauded by a company whose owner is now in jail for — you guessed it — fraud. The NBA has hired a top-tier law firm to investigate, and depending on how it plays out, huge consequences could be coming for the Clippers, including massive fines, loss of draft picks, or in the most extreme case, the termination of Leonard’s contract (which would make him a free agent able to sign with any team, possibly for cheap, which could potentially turn the league on it’s head).
So, what does this have to do with the Spurs? Well, poorly kept secrets that we knew about in 2019 but generally got swept under the rug are returning to the spotlight, and it begs the question if more went on in 2018 that we haven’t been told about. It was known back when Leonard became a free agent after winning the 2019 championship with the Toronto Raptors that his uncle and “manager”, Dennis Robertson, was asking for impermissible benefits from at least the Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers in free agency, including an ownership stake in the team or affiliates (such as the Toronto Maple Leafs), access to a private jet that would be available for use 24-7, and other privileges that are only available to licensed player agents, which Robertson is not.
Another not-so-well kept secret is Leonard wanted, even demanded to play with Paul George — a trade neither the Lakers or Raptors had the desire and/or personnel to make. However, possibly to their own detriment, the Clippers agreed to make it happen if Leonard signed, sending current MVP and NBA champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the Thunder for the over-the-hill George. The trade didn’t work out well, as Leonard and George were rarely healthy enough to play at the same time, only winning a total of three playoff series together before the latter moved on.
Do you know who else Kawhi demanded trade for PG13? That’s right, the Spurs. Back in 2019, Leonard revealed straight up that he had “asked” for the Spurs to trade for George. Odds are they said no because they already had LaMarcus Aldridge and were loyal to him (he was their first big get in free agency in the modern era, and they had already gone through their own private saga with him), plus the Pacers probably would have still demanded more.
Kawhi asking for his team to trade for a certain player isn’t too big of deal — it’s become the norm for stars to try and team up by an means necessary these days — but it does beg the question: if Leonard and Uncle Dennis demanded something from the Spurs that they did of at least three other teams when he hit free agency, who’s to say they also didn’t demand the same impermissible benefits?
While some may say, “It doesn’t matter anymore, we have Victor Wembanyama now,” and so on, it actually does. This saga caused a hit to their reputation that still lives on. Even today, his falling out with the Spurs is still defined as medical mismanagement (sometimes kindly worded as a “disagreement”) of his knee/quad issues despite proof that they were right (his issue is chronic, not something that could be surgically repaired). Who’s to say opposing front offices don’t use those same talking points with free agents, telling potential prospects, “Look what happened to Kawhi. Do you really want your medical future in their hands?”
Back in 2018, the Spurs released some of their story through ESPN, but it never felt like they truly stood up and defended themselves, instead just taking the hit and moving on. It made sense to an extent: the NBA is a players’ league, and they were already losing the PR battle against Uncle Dennis despite their sterling reputation, so why make it worse? Not to mention, it’s likely that they, or at least Gregg Popovich, still loved and respected Leonard (with incidents like “Boo Gate” being proof), and they didn’t want to upend his career and take the PR hit that would come with that as well.
However, it’s seven years later, and the mask of a quiet player who “just wanted to hoop” is coming off. His reputation is already shot, even if it’s mostly the fault of his uncle, so at some point, the Spurs need to stop caring about him and start looking out for themselves. If any impermissible demands were made, they should speak up and fix their reputation once and for all, because it does in fact still matter.
Besides, the only reason they aren’t still in rebuild mode trying to recover from the damage he did is one extremely lucky ping pong ball bounce in the right year, and the chances of ending their playoff drought (which is currently the second longest in the NBA because of all this) wouldn’t look so hot.
By Marilyn Dubinski, via Pounding The Rock