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Can you believe it has already been a year?
On July 5, 2019, arguably one of the biggest moments in Clippers’ history took place. Kawhi Leonard decided that he wanted to be a Clipper.
Free agent forward Kawhi Leonard has informed runners-up teams of his plans: He's signing with the Clippers, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 6, 2019
If that tweet wasn’t enough to take down Twitter, just one minute later, this piece of blockbuster news broke as well.
Oklahoma City is trading All-Star Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for a record-setting collection of draft choices, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 6, 2019
Over the course of two minutes, the Clippers had acquired Leonard and Paul George, two of arguably the top players in the entire league. Just like that, the entire franchise became arguably the best team in all of basketball.
Since this news broke at nearly 11 o’clock at night, I’m sure a lot of people were already in bed or asleep when this news broke, so they missed it when it broke. However, the feeling of waking up and checking your phone to this news must have been sensational.
So, where were you when you learned about these moves? Were you up, and following along on Twitter until 1 a.m.? Or, did you wake up and have to double check to make sure your phone wasn’t wrong?
Personally, I’ll never forget it. I had just spent the day at Universal Studios Hollywood with my girlfriend, and I was a nervous wreck. The news was expected to drop that day, and I was checking my phone every five minutes. Once the evening rolled around, I had essentially given up.
Later that night, we were sitting on the couch watching TV, and my phone went off at 10:54 p.m. Thinking it was a text message, I checked my phone, and saw the notification from Woj. My heart stopped, I couldn’t believe it. It was truly one of the few times in my life I have been at a loss for words. My girlfriend kept asking “What? What is it?” Finally, I just said “We got him.”
I didn’t know how to react. I had hope of it happening, but I just didn’t actually think that WE would get him. The CLIPPERS would land arguably the best player in the NBA. While I was still trying to react, my girlfriend says to me: “Oh, you guys got Paul George too”.
At that point I was in disbelief. The notification came in, and the Clippers had gotten George in a trade from the Thunder too. What a moment. What a night.
I’ll truly never forget it.