Exclusive
The man who is suing Jerry West and Clippers for his alleged role in landing Kawhi Leonard says West left them a voice message in 2019, acknowledging their relationship and throwing the Lakers in the process.
Johnny Wilkes say TMZ Sports … West left the voice message for him on July 1, 2019, around 14:00 … “expressing concern that Kawhi will choose the Lakers instead of the Clippers.”
Wilkes says, “In the same message, Jerry thanked me for all my efforts in getting Kawhi to sign with the Clippers.”
TMZ Sports got the voicemail – in which a West-like man says, “Hey, call Jerry. I want to thank you very much for trying to help. I heard this morning that everyone in the Lakers camp thinks they’ll catch him. “
“It’s hard for me to believe that he would like to go to that show where he wouldn’t even be … he wouldn’t even take his name in the newspaper and he wouldn’t be the face of the franchise, that’s for sure.”
“He could be the best player on the team, but I hope things are going well again, I really appreciate everything you’ve done.”
The man who is believed to be Western seems to be referring to this fact LeBron James he is with the Lakers – and Kawhi would have overtaken him as a zero blow to the front of the team.
The man also seems to believe that Kawhi is a better player than LeBron, Anthony Davis and other Lakers members.
FYI, West is a member of the Clippers executive board. He is also considered one of the greatest Lakers players of all time.
Voicemail continues … “I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on. But I want to meet in private and I’d love to take you to dinner and even Sam, if he’s around. So at least I can “I pay your respects, boys, because you have been so generous and helpful. Be careful, we’ll talk to you soon. Goodbye.”
We are told that “Sam” in question is Sam Watson – which Wilkes claims was also involved in the effort to land Kawhi with the Clippers.
As I reported earlier, West he denied any wrongdoing related to Kawhi Leonard’s signing – but when he was contacted about this specific audio track, neither West nor the Clippers commented.
Clippers previously issued a statement saying: “The trial filed by Johnny Wilkes is full of inaccuracies and the accusations are unfounded. The Clippers are fully cooperating with the NBA in its investigation, which is standard when making these types of allegations.
“[The Clippers] provides the NBA with evidence that the allegations are false. “
The NBA has launched an investigation in the charges arising from the trial.