OverDrive - Murray on the Leonard investigation extending, Ballmer's oversight and the future with the Raptors

Episode Date: August 7, 2026

The Athletic NBA Writer Law Murray joined OverDrive to discuss Kawhi Leonard's investigation, his future with the Clippers, the probe adding more elements, Steve Ballmer's position and if there is any supplemental discipline, if the trade does get voided, how he'd fit on the Raptors and more.

Like it doesn't make sense to me. Why Toronto now? Maybe Law Murray has the answer. We're going to try them against. Closer to the northern area with tree planting? I don't know. I don't know. Or it's as far from L.A. as you can get close to it anyway.

Law, do you have us? I got you guys. I hope y'all got me. We got you. So maybe we'll start there. We'll just throw a fastball on the paint right off the bat. Explain to us, in your opinion, why now Kauai Leonard wants to come back to Toronto? man I had a really good story or I thought it was a really good story I was like

man it's straight is going to go through and and we don't need to talk about a whole lot of other stuff that could happen because when Kauai came to Toronto with the clippers in January he didn't play but he made it a point to be a part of what the community was doing They had a court in Scarborough open for him. And I kind of just put that in the back of my mind. I was like, man, Kauai's not even healthy enough to play. And I knew he wanted to play. Like he had played, I think, 24 straight games to that point.

And so the Clippers still look like they could make some improvements based off of how poorly they started. They were in the midst of that turnaround. They beat Toronto in Toronto that game in January. that game in January. And so I just feel like if Kauai didn't feel like he was going to get his next deal from the Clippers, I don't think Kauai is that complicated when it comes to

who he wants to play for. I think loyalty is a big thing for him. I think that's a big reason why he's been with the Clippers as long as he has been, even though everyone else wound up moving on, even though there was disappointment after disappointment in this era, I do think that he always held Toronto in high regard,

maybe not when he got there but certainly over the course of that year I think it left an impression on him certainly the fact that they won a championship left an impression on him the fact that his son was born there it left an impression on him I feel like he's always had that connection

and I feel like in the event that he could he would have to change teams because he was very comfortable here in L.A. Maybe too comfortable as we might wind up talking about but like I feel like his relationship

with Toronto was not trivial it was not superficial. I really feel like he felt he developed a bond in that one year. And I do think that it was a hard decision for him to leave and that the only thing making it worth it to leave was to come home and do the same thing here, something that he wasn't able to do. I'm curious where your attention is now on this deal as it unfold.

Like you're much closer to it than us. Are you still looking at this as a deal you think will happen, but maybe the shape of it will change? Are you still thinking there's a real possibility It falls apart completely? Like where do your eyes go first in this down the road? The National Basketball Association. That's that's it.

Like this investigation should have been over a long time ago. I'm not, it's not for me to really address that to anyone specifically. So I will address it in general. should have been over and the Raptors clearly made this transaction planned for this transaction with the thought that they would be completing it

within a week of them agreeing to it with the Clippers. The Clippers who made a lot of transactions since that one day in January that I just described with you all they traded a Vista Zubas, got a fluid draft picks from it. Before that, traded

James Hardin got Darius Garland out of it. They wound up trading for John Collins, or trading John Collins as part of a 16 transaction and moving on from that and agreeing to turn through Rudy Hachmira to replace him. They still have a restricted free agent in Benedict McManthern. They are interested in other restricted free agents, namely Peyton Watson keeps coming up. But this has been a holding pattern.

It's now a holding pattern that affects more than Jessica Wynard and the Clippers. It now affects the Toronto Raptors. It affects Brandon and it affects Grady Dick. and it puts the NBA in a bad light that they have continued to be in. I'm looking at this deal as the Raptors would absolutely prefer to have Kwai Leonard instead of Brandon Engram. It's a lot cleaner for the Raptors to just take Brandon and Grady back and try and repair those relationships. We've seen rescinded traits before, and this is kind of just like a trait that's not being approved or the Raptors don't want to go through it. The NBA isn't blocking it.

They're just telling the Raptors, hey, if you do this trade, then we could punish Kauai, and obviously you're taking on Kauai. That's why we're in the pattern that we're in right now. So it's nothing for the Raptors to do. It's nothing that the Clippers can do. It's the NBA, and I really, I can say, yeah, I wanted this to be over, but I've been wanted this to be over. We can't really discuss adjusted terms until we get what the Raptors are looking for.

and that is a resolution to this investigation. With LaMurie of the Athletic, so in terms of Steve Balmer and the Clippers and what they're bracing for, like I get the impression, again, this is based on reporting, that Adam Silver is, I don't want to say he's afraid of Steve Balmer,

but he's trying to thread a needle here where it doesn't get to a point where, like, he loses Balmer as an owner. what are you bracing for from a Clippers perspective? Like how bad could this get for Steve Ballmer and the Clippers? Man, I think this is the most obvious thing that came out of the initial reporting in September. Like, this is a situation where you're talking about a star player, the face of a franchise, and the status of that player's contract.

And then you're thinking about you don't have a lot of precedent for something like this, salary caps or convention. Certainly not to this degree, right? Like Joe Smith was the number one overall pick of the Golden State Warriors back in 1995, who wound up on the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Joe was never a star player, right? He had star qualities, but never a star, like never an all-star selection and anything like that, right? Just a good serviceable pro for a long time. And he's relatively early in his career. And, you know, the conflict between Joe's agents wound up getting to be the smoking gun that led to Joe's contract, essentially being voided and him going to the Detroit Pist for a year, only to find himself back with Minnesota, a team that had to give up so many draft picks that it just crippled Kevin Garnett's prime.

Kevin McHale, the general manager, had to accept a suspension. I believe that was the case for Glenn Taylor, the owner as well. I don't think anyone really trips about an owner not being able to show up or even a front office member not being going to show up the games. But then you're entrusting the rest of your front office to make transactions and the rest of your business operations to run the organization. It never touched Flip Saunders, the head coach. And shoot, the Timberwolves continue to make the playoffs and flame out in the first round

like they had always done. So when you look at correlating all of that previous, but very, obviously, there's not a lot of precedent to what could happen with the Clippers. My thought was, wow, if they void Kauai's contract, look at the team that they put together. They thought they were building a contender. I thought they were building a contender, right? Now it's like if you're trading Kauai, you're almost like absolved from it. If you lose his contract, you're still like, well, we're not going to pay him anyway.

We don't have high expectations anyway. Things have changed significantly. If you're thinking of what are they going to do, are they going to hold the front office responsible? Again, you're like, well, other people are going to have to run the team, whatever. If Steve Barber can't show up to the arena, man, that's an embarrassing look. Are they going to find them? Who cares about fines, really?

Anytime we hear about any level of fines, organizational or individual players, we're like, that's a lot of money. I wonder where that goes. It's not crippling to a basketball operation. So that's really where you're talking about. It's like, what penalty is the NBA going to come up with that is going to be, like, satisfactory to everybody involved, including the team that they're trying to punish, including sending whatever message they're trying to send to the rest of the league?

And then there's the Players Association who have made it pretty clear. They do not expect Kauai Leonard's contract to even be voided, which is the primary concern for the Raptors, aside from a suspension for Kauai. It's like, they're going to fight that too thin, though. So that's the thing. It's like, I don't know what the NBA is going to want to do. You would think they would have to be significant because you're talking about something that has embarrassed the league for close to a year now.

Yeah, and it continues. And we'll see, you know, we're almost into, well, I'm not going to say September, but we're getting closer to it. Camps are going to open up by the end of September. And I've got to believe there'll be a resolution between now and then. But this rate, who knows? He is LaMurie of the Athletic. Great catching up with you.

Thank you so much for doing this. Hey, thank you all. Hopefully we can talk about basketball. Next time we will. Next time we will. Appreciate it. Thank you, law. Yeah, so, you know, he's frustrated. Everyone seems to be frustrated. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Hello.

My gosh. Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish right inside the free IHIR radio app. Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like the Tom Green Farmcast and park the bus. Now with full video. We're building a ramp for Tony Hawk. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing. Right on your screen.

Cheers. Open the free IHRRadio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch.