{"id":893751,"date":"2026-09-16T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T06:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893751\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T06:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T06:00:11","slug":"former-nba-player-predicts-kawhi-leonard-will-be-blackballed-from-the-nba-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893751\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NBA Player Predicts Kawhi Leonard Will Be Blackballed From The NBA Hall Of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the NBA holds up its ruling<\/a> on Kawhi Leonard<\/a> and the Clippers\u2019<\/a> salary cap circumvention scandal<\/a>, a prevailing media opinion is that the former Finals MVP got away<\/a> with a far lighter punishment despite being the scheme\u2019s main beneficiary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, former NBA player Eddie A. Johnson<\/a> believes Kawhi Leonard should face further consequences for his actions when he retires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he retires, he will not get in there the first or second time. I just truly believe that they\u2019re gonna blackball him for about three or four years before he gets voted in,\u201d Johnson said<\/a> in a recent interview on SiriusXM Radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll eventually get in, but I think they\u2019re gonna make him sweat. It\u2019s not gonna be cut and dry, and it\u2019s gonna show when guys that he played with get in before he does. That\u2019s gonna be the message sent to Kawhi, and rightly so.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a two-time champion, former Finals MVP, and multi-time All-Star, Leonard\u2019s resume makes it seem like he\u2019s almost destined for the Hall of Fame. His resume has certainly qualified him for Hall of Fame recognition, especially since people make it with far less.<\/p>\n

So far in his career, Kawhi Leonard has averaged 20.7 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.1 assists over 14 seasons while shooting 49.1% from the field and 39.9% from behind the three-point line. As a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, two-time Finals MVP, and two-time champion, there is no case for Leonard not making it to the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

But under the circumstances, I have to agree with Johnson that the league could make him sweat to get in. Especially with a federal investigation looming<\/a> over Leonard, if there is any evidence of criminal misconduct on his part, a $700K fine would rightly be the \u2018least of his problems.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Kawhi Leonard skipped joining teams<\/a> like the Pistons<\/a> and the Timberwolves<\/a> for the sake of his legacy. Fighting for a championship in the final years of his career with a team in a city where he has already won a championship would be the perfect way for Leonard to end his career and redefine his legacy.<\/p>\n

However, Johnson predicts that his actions have warranted an asterisk on Leonard\u2019s legacy, even long after he retires. If the federal probe does not yield any evidence against Kawhi Leonard, he will almost certainly make it to the Hall of Fame when he retires.<\/p>\n

But if Johnson is right, the controversial Raptors star could face several hurdles to attaining Hall of Fame status after he ends his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the NBA holds up its ruling on Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers\u2019 salary cap circumvention scandal, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-893751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}