In the end, you could frame it as an awfully expensive homecoming. When news broke Wednesday that Kawhi Leonard signed a three-year deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, two years plus a player option on a third, the simple math provided some jaw-dropping numbers.
Consider, for a moment, the path Leonard ultimately trod to find his way to his Southern California homeland as a 28-year-old NBA free agent. First, he forced his way out of San Antonio, where relations with team management soured around a leg injury that limited him to nine games a season ago. That move meant forgoing a super-max contract he could have only signed with the Spurs that would have been worth somewhere in the range of $220 million (all figures U.