Nike is intent on rebuffing all approaches and retaining its rights to the "Klaw" logo for as long as it canNBAE/GETTY IMAGES
The Clippers are said to have "quietly looked into the feasibility of purchasing the portion of the rights" to Raptors F Kawhi Leonard's "Klaw" logo that is still owned by Nike, according to Marc Stein of the N.Y. TIMES. Such an acquisition would "theoretically enable them to bestow full control of the logo upon Leonard as part of their anticipated free-agency pitch meeting" with him this offseason. However, Nike is "intent on rebuffing all approaches and retaining its rights to that logo for as long as it can -- to assure that it would not appear on gear made by Leonard's new contract partners at New Balance." What makes the Clippers' possible maneuver noteworthy, is the fact that sources who passed along the information "found it completely normal -- natural, even -- for the Clippers to consider hatching such a scheme" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/30).
DOING HIS OWN THING: THE RINGER's Brian Phillips wrote Leonard is the "basketball star for everyone who missed out on an invitation to life's red carpet." During the Raptors-Bucks Eastern Conference Finals, Bucks F Giannis Antetokounmpo was seen as a "natural face for the league: telegenic, charismatic, at ease in his own skin, a player people loved to talk about." Leonard, by contrast, had a "kind of unreadable contrariness, a quality of being somewhere else even when he was standing right in front of you." From a "marketing standpoint, he was a nightmare." He "did his own thing without seeming to care whether it rubbed anyone, or everyone, the wrong way." He had "no evident interest in crafting a narrative or explaining himself" (THERINGER.com, 5/30).
