By Mike Finger / San Antonio Express-News, 2026-09-03 15:18:01
2019年7月24日，洛杉矶绿草甸休闲中心，洛杉矶快船队老板史蒂夫·鲍尔默 (Steve Ballmer) 在科怀·伦纳德 (Kawhi Leonard) 与保罗·乔治 (Paul George) 的媒体见面会上为伦纳德递上球衣。在NBA就球队赞助商与伦纳德之间涉及规避工资帽的商业交易展开调查后，鲍尔默被处以停职一年的处罚，快船队被扣除五个首轮选秀权。在休赛期被交易至多伦多的伦纳德被罚款70万美元。（Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images/TNS）
从走廊的另一头，丹尼斯·罗伯逊 (Dennis Robertson) 就看到了我走过来。
他是否认出了我，我不敢确定。但当我停下脚步表明身份时，他上下打量了我一番，随后露出了极其灿烂的笑容。
“所以，现在《圣安东尼奥快报》想聊聊了？”罗伯逊说道。
事实是，《圣安东尼奥快报》一直都想聊。但如果说伦纳德的这位叔叔兼顾问七年前在加利福尼亚州奥克兰的甲骨文球馆走廊里洋洋得意，那也是因为他确实有资格这么做。
彼时彼刻，他的侄子是全世界最出色的全能篮球运动员，这是一个他刚刚用无可置疑的表现证明了的事实。在2019年NBA总决赛第4场比赛中，伦纳德砍下36分、12个篮板和4次抢断，带领多伦多猛龙队带着距离队史首冠仅差一场胜利的战绩启程返回加拿大。
这位被外界通称为“丹尼斯叔叔”的男人表示，任何采访都必须等到系列赛结束之后。多年来，他一直回避在公开记录中发表看法，从不谈及伦纳德与他效力的第一支球队关系破裂的原因，也不谈马刺本可以通过怎样的方式来挽回局面。
他让我那年夏天晚些时候给他打电话。我心知肚明，根本不能指望他会接电话。但我还是向他表达了祝贺，祝贺他的家族所取得的圆满结果。
七年后的今天，我依然想向他道一声祝贺。
从纸面上看，在洛杉矶快船队涉嫌规避NBA工资帽的计划中，没有任何涉案人员在本周受到的处罚比罗伯逊更严厉——他被禁止在五年内“与NBA球队及其关联机构开展业务或进行任何形式的接触”。
然而在现实中，“丹尼斯叔叔”却赚得盆满钵满，再次如愿以偿地得到了他想要的一切。
2014年8月9日，星期六，加利福尼亚州莫雷诺谷会议与休闲中心举办的第三届科怀·伦纳德篮球技术训练营期间，圣安东尼奥马刺队的科怀·伦纳德（左）与其叔叔丹尼斯·罗伯逊交谈。
由沃奇尔·立普顿·罗森·卡茨律师事务所（Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz）受联盟委托出具的一份长达35页的调查报告摘要中，详尽披露了触目惊心的细节——该调查证实了普利策奖得主、调查记者巴勃罗·托雷 (Pablo Torre) 的大部分报道成果——而伦纳德在整件事中堪称大获全胜。
报告显示，罗伯逊在2019年伦纳德成为自由球员期间，提出了一系列涉及场外交易和额外报酬的诉求。报告还指出，尽管根据联盟劳资协议的条款，这些诉求明确属于非法行为，但快船队依然欣然应允。报告进一步指出，这直接促成了来自Aspiration、Boingo Wireless、Daktronics和Lockton Insurance等公司承诺的至少6600万美元的账外资金。
尽管目前尚不清楚在Aspiration公司宣布破产之前伦纳德到底拿到了4800万美元中的多少，但调查显示，他全额收到了来自其余三家公司的全部1800万美元。
最终，伦纳德为此得到的惩罚——或者说奖赏——是什么？他只交了70万美元的罚款。而且据推测，他还能拍拍屁股离开这支即将被重罚打回篮球石器时代的球队。
如果传闻已久将伦纳德送回多伦多的交易最终达成，他留给快船队的将是总计损失的10个首轮签——其中5个来自NBA的处罚，另外5个则是为了促成伦纳德加盟而在换取乔治的交易中付出的代价——此外还有两届常规赛MVP谢伊·吉尔杰斯-亚历山大 (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander)，他同样是在乔治的交易中被送走的。
由于NBA总裁亚当·萧华 (Adam Silver) 必须代表其他希望维护工资帽神圣性的亿万富豪老板们表明强硬立场，快船老板鲍尔默被处以停职一年的处罚，球队被罚款3000万美元。所有这一切，就是快船在伦纳德时代效力的七个赛季中仅赢下三轮季后赛系列赛所付出的代价。而现在，他们很可能在至少十年内都无法争夺总冠军。
但伦纳德呢？很有可能，他马上又要签下一份丰厚的续约合同了。如果一切顺利，他和猛龙队或许还能携手打出一轮深度的季后赛之旅，无论他老东家的球迷们对此有多么咬牙切齿。
当然，这正如他当年离开圣安东尼奥后所发生的一切一样。时过境迁，已无需再去重提和争论那些导致伦纳德从马刺的一代功勋活传奇沦为贝尔县最令人厌恶的公众人物的每一次分歧与每一次心存芥蒂。
伦纳德在这里至今依然极不受欢迎，以至于在格雷格·波波维奇 (Gregg Popovich) 执教的最后一个完整赛季中，当波波维奇拿起现场广播麦克风恳请球迷不要嘘伦纳德时，霜冻银行中心球馆的观众甚至转而狂嘘起他们自己的这位名人堂主帅。即便马刺队已经迎来了新的超级巨星并重返NBA总决赛，昔日的伤口也未曾愈合。
而在洛杉矶，伦纳德从未成为过总决赛MVP，且后伦纳德时代的阵痛期很可能会持续更久，球迷们对他的回忆大概也不会好到哪里去。
但如果让罗伯逊重新来过，他会做出改变吗？无论他在马刺当年的混乱局面中扮演了什么角色，他的侄子最终斩获了第二枚总冠军戒指以及高达九位数的薪水收益。
即便罗伯逊此后可能再也无法代理任何NBA球员了又如何？他这位唯一的“前客户”或许无法公开承认这一点，但对于事情的发展结局，他大概不会有任何怨言。
因此，就像七年前在甲骨文球馆走廊里一样，现在看来，确实依然值得向他道一声祝贺。当年7月我按照他的建议给他打电话时，他没有接听，也从未回复我的留言。
但也许，我该再试着打给他一次。
毕竟，他现在应该有大把的空闲时间了。
由生成式 AI 翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
查看原文：Kawhi Leonard, Dennis Robertson get last laugh in Clippers probe
Kawhi Leonard, Dennis Robertson get last laugh in Clippers probe
Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer hands Kawhi Leonard his jersey as he and Paul George are introduced at Green Meadows Recreation Center on July 24, 2019, in Los Angeles. Ballmer received a one-year suspension and the Clippers were docked five first-round picks at the conclusion of the NBA’s investigation into business deals involving team sponsors and Leonard to circumvent the salary cap. Leonard, who was traded to Toronto in the offseason, was fined $700,000. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images/TNS)
From well down the hall, Dennis Robertson saw me coming.
Whether he recognized me or not, I’ll never be sure. But once I stopped and identified myself, he looked me up and down, then broke into a huge grin.
“So nowww the San Antonio Express-News wants to talk,” Robertson said.
The truth was, the San Antonio Express-News always did. But if Kawhi Leonard’s uncle and adviser was gloating in that Oracle Arena hallway in Oakland, California, seven years ago, it was because he’d earned his right to do so.
At that moment, his nephew was the best all-around basketball player in the world, a designation he’d just proven beyond any reasonable doubt. In Game 4 of the 2019 NBA Finals, Leonard scored 36 points to go with 12 rebounds and four steals, and his Toronto Raptors were heading back to Canada one victory away from their first championship.
Any interview, the man colloquially known as “Uncle Dennis” said, would have to wait until after the series was over. For years he’d avoided opportunities to be quoted on the record about why Leonard’s relationship with his first franchise fell apart, or about how the Spurs could have fixed it.
He told me to call him later that summer. I knew better than to expect that he’d answer the phone. But I congratulated him on how things had worked out for his family.
And seven years later, I still do.
On paper, no individual involved in the Los Angeles Clippers’ alleged scheme to circumvent the NBA salary cap received a harsher penalty this week than Robertson, who was banned for five years from “conducting business or otherwise engaging with NBA teams and their affiliates."
In reality, though, “Uncle Dennis” made out like a bandit, getting exactly what he wanted, all over again.
San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard (left) talks with his uncle Dennis Robertson during the third annual Kawhi Leonard Basketball Skills Clinic held Saturday Aug. 9, 2014 at the Moreno Valley Conference & Recreation Center in Moreno Valley, CA.
As detailed with damning specifics in a 35-page summary of the league-commissioned investigation by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz — a probe that corroborated much of the work done by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Pablo Torre — Leonard is coming out way ahead here.
Per the report, Robertson made a series of demands for side deals and extra compensation during Leonard’s free agency in 2019. Per the report, even though those demands were explicitly illegal under the terms of the league’s collective bargaining agreement, the Clippers were happy to meet them. And per the report, that resulted in at least $66 million in promised side cash in deals with Aspiration, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance.
While it’s unclear how much of the $48 million Aspiration deal Leonard collected before that company declared bankruptcy, the investigation showed he received all of the $18 million from the other three companies.
In the end, what was Leonard’s punishment — or reward — for this? He pays a $700,000 fine. And presumably gets to leave the organization about to be sanctioned into the basketball stone age.
If the long-proposed trade sending Leonard back to Toronto goes through, he’ll leave behind a Clippers franchise that wound up forfeiting a total of 10 first-round picks — five as punishment from the NBA, and five to acquire Paul George in the deal that convinced Leonard to sign in the first place — plus a two-time Most Valuable Player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who also left in the George deal.
Because NBA commissioner Adam Silver had to put his foot down on behalf of the other billionaire owners who wanted to preserve the sanctity of the salary cap, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer received a one-year ban, and the team was fined $30 million. All of that is their price for a seven-season Leonard era in which the Clippers won only three playoff series. And now they probably won’t be able to compete for a title for at least a decade.
But Leonard? Chances are, he’s about to sign another lucrative extension. And if things work out, he and the Raptors might be able to go on another long playoff run together, no matter how many fans at his former stops are rooting against it.
That is, of course, what happened after he left San Antonio. After all of this time, there is no need to rehash and re-litigate every disagreement and each perceived slight that led to Leonard to morph from a living Spurs legend into the most loathed public figure in Bexar County.
Leonard remains so unpopular here that when, during Gregg Popovich’s final full season, he grabbed the public address microphone and implored fans not to boo Leonard, the Frost Bank Center crowd started booing their own Hall of Fame coach instead. The wounds haven’t healed, even though the Spurs have returned to the NBA Finals with a new superstar.
In Los Angeles, where Leonard never became a Finals MVP, and where the rough post-Leonard times are likely to last a lot longer, he probably won’t be remembered any more fondly.
But if Robertson had it to do all over again, would he change anything? Whatever role he might have played in the Spurs mess, his nephew wound up with a second championship ring and a nine-figure payday.
And even though Robertson probably will never represent an NBA player again? His one previous client can’t admit this publicly, but he probably doesn’t have any complaints about how things unfolded.
So, just like in that Oracle Center hallway seven years ago, it seems as though congratulations are in order. When I called Robertson that July, per his suggestion, he didn’t pick up, and he never responded to my message.
But maybe I’ll try him again.
After all, he should have some free time now.
By Mike Finger / San Antonio Express-News