Danilo Gallinari isn’t exactly looking back on the Kawhi Leonard-Clippers era with warm feelings.
On the latest episode of A Cresta Alta, Gallinari said Leonard’s arrival in Los Angeles changed the course of his career, and he made it clear he still feels the sting of being moved out of the Clippers’ plans. He tied his situation directly to Leonard while discussing the current drama around the two-time champion.
“He should pay all of that $50 million. He changed the trajectory of my career and put me in a difficult situation by sending me away from Los Angeles.”
Gallinari also said Leonard should give the money to charity. The point was unmistakable: he felt his time with the Clippers mattered, and he believed he was in a strong spot to be a meaningful contributor on a team that could make life miserable for opponents.
He said he regretted leaving and then spending the next stretch of his career moving from team to team, getting older without finding another situation where he felt as involved and important as he did in Los Angeles. Even so, he said he wasn’t upset about ending up in Oklahoma City, though he noted that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was happier than he was about how the Thunder stint played out.
“What happened to my NBA career wasn’t decided by a general manager or an owner, but by a player who decided that team wasn’t good enough and wanted something else.”
Gallinari’s frustration is rooted in what the Clippers were chasing when they brought in Leonard and Paul George in 2019. At the time, that pairing looked like a huge step toward a title run. In reality, the results never matched the hype.
And while Gallinari’s role would likely have faded eventually, he made it clear he would have preferred to stay in a place where he already knew the landscape and could keep contributing. Instead, the Clippers moved on, the roster changed, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s rise turned into one of the biggest what-ifs in the league.
That’s part of the backdrop here too: the Clippers gave up seven draft picks in the process, and they still don’t have the kind of star growth they watched leave their building. Viewed through that lens, Gallinari’s comments make plenty of sense.
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