Colin Cowherd: “According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, Pat Riley of the Heat and Mark Cuban of the Mavericks are going to make a hard push for Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi Leonard is going to be a free agent… Miami and Dallas have no state tax, LA has got 13%. That IS something with Kawhi and here’s why. Kawhi makes $34 million a year, if he stays with the Clippers the next the years instead of Dallas or Miami, he’d lose $13.5 million. If he stayed for four he would $18 million. Why does that matter so much for Kawhi? Because unlike Steph or LeBron, California doesn’t matter for those guys, they have big shoe deals and big social media deals, and Kawhi doesn’t. He’s not a big personality, he doesn’t make anything on social media, and he doesn’t drive shoe sales. A lot of pro athletes come to California and they’ve already made their money, or they can drive shoe deals, or their social media deals, Kawhi NEEDS that NBA money. Secondly, he is super frugal. LEGENDARILY frugal. True story: when he signed a deal with the Spurs and made $94 million, he was driving a 20-year-old SUV. When asked about it he said ‘it runs, and it’s paid off.’ He then had a deal with Wingstop and they gave him coupons. According to an article in Sports Illustrated he ‘panicked’ when he lost his coupons for free chicken wings. For athletes like Steph and LeBron, California is where they need to be. The taxes don’t matter as much to LeBron because he’s not going to get these opportunities and these cozy deals, and this television network without it being in his backyard… I think Dallas fits way better than Miami. Luka is a way better player than Jimmy Butler and I like Jimmy Butler. If he goes to Dallas he no longer has to guard Luka, who is the biggest nightmare for any great defender. Luka, Kawhi, Porzingis, and Hardaway is a championship team... He can hide in Dallas, which is a football town, and I think Kawhi would love that. He would love not having to deal with the pressure of being a 'one' because he will have Luka to take the pressure off him.” (Full Video Above)
Listen to Colin Cowherd explain why he thinks the Dallas Mavericks make the perfect fit for free agent-to-be Kawhi Leonard, and why the Mavericks would instantly be the NBA Finals favorites with the two-time Finals MVP joining Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis.
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