LeBron James LEAVING Lakers, joining Curry & Warriors? Giannis & Heat? Cavs RETURN? | Nick Wright

**Nick Wright** (0:01)
Welcome in. What a day, episode 473 of What's Wright with Nick Wright, presented to you by Boost Mobile. I, eight hours ago, planned for this entire show to be World Cup stuff, because I have just been enraptured by this tournament, so much so. And listen, I'm a bigger soccer fan than most Americans, but I was ready to start today's show with a really, potentially obnoxious rant. Maybe I'll do it on Thursday, about how I will lose respect for you as a sports fan, if you're not at least somewhat into this World Cup. And we can get more into that on Thursday, but as into the World Cup as I am, this is a seismic day in the NBA, as we found out four hours ago that LeBron James pretty, not shockingly, but I would still say most of the smart money was that he was going to come back to the Lakers, even if nobody thought it made the most sense for anyone, or certainly not for LeBron. But LeBron James leaving the Lakers after eight wildly successful seasons, more on that in a moment. And now, that is still the biggest news of the day, but just in the last 20 minutes, another relatively seismic thing, which is Kawhi Leonard about to go back to the Raptors. So let's jump right in to straight voicemail brought to you by Boost Mobile. Also, by the way, John Marantz and Blazer now, how about that? Erling Holland and Norway advanced past the Ivory Coast, that just happened, and the Raptors nearing a deal to bring back Kawhi Leonard. And I think this is a really good return for the Clippers. Brandon Ingram, who is actually on a reasonable contract, like two years left, $40 million a year to player option after this year, so maybe he opts out, but that's fine. Grady Dick, a bit of a lottery ticket, two first round picks. Shams is saying, and a pick swap. That's a decent return for Kauai Leonard, who has one year left on his deal, and Chris Haynes now reporting that the Raptors and Kauai are going to get together on an extension. And so LeBron's Lakers tenure and Kauai's Clippers tenure, ending on the same day, is kind of perfect, because LeBron, while his Lakers tenure has been scrutinized and dissected and picked apart day by day, week by week, year by year, his career with the Lakers is now over, Kauai's career with the Clippers is now over, and unequivocally, undeniably, irrefutably, one was a massive success, and the other, a wretched disappointment. Now, there can be different reasons why it was a wretched disappointment, most of which, not all of which, but most of which are injury related. But while folks will attempt to do some revisionist history here, when Kauai Leonard went to the Los Angeles Clippers, the conventional wisdom was that he and Paul George, LeBron had already been in LA for a year, had just suffered the first injury of his career, that torn groin or strained groin on Christmas Day, his first year with the Lakers, that the Clippers were the team to beat, that Kauai and Paul George were the most omnipresent duo in the league, that Kauai, if he wasn't already the best player in the league, was about to firmly grasp that title away from LeBron James or Kevin Durant was coming off the Achilles or had just torn his Achilles, whomever you thought it was, and instead what you got in seven years of Kauai being a Clipper, you got 35 playoff games, one trip to the conference finals in which he did not play, three total, all NBA seasons, I'm sorry, four total, all NBA seasons, a potential looming scandal that he leaves, you know, in the wake of, but that has yet been ruled on, and again, folks are going to try to convince you, oh, you know, it was just the injuries. It was partially the injuries that made Kawhi's tenure in Los Angeles as disappointing as they were, but Kawhi and Paul George were fully healthy when the Clippers were up 3-1 in the bubble on a Denver Nuggets team that up to that point had never sniffed a conference finals, and they were part of their lead actors in the total collapse, including Kawhi's 6 for 22, 14-point game 7 performance. And for whatever it's worth, Kawhi was there this year for the seven games against those same Denver Nuggets, when in game 7, with a chance, when people were giving, putting Kawhi on MVP ballots this year, in a game 7, went 6 for 13 to see the team get blown out. Now every time Kawhi popped in the playoffs, and that was, I'm sorry, not this year, last year was when that happened, this year they lost what, in the play-in? That's right.