Kawhi Leonard: If Teams 'Didn't Want to Wait for Me, They Didn't Have To'

While many free agents elected to make their decisions right at 6 p.m. ET on June 30 (or even before), Kawhi Leonard took nearly a week to consider all of his options.

And if teams missed out on signing other free agents while waiting on the two-time NBA Finals MVP's decision, that's not his problem.

"If they didn't want to wait for me, they didn't have to," Leonard told Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

Leonard did not wind up agreeing to sign with the Clippers until the late hours of July 5 on the West Coast. And once that happened, it led to a flurry of moves as the rest of the league, including the Los Angeles Lakers, responded.

Although a delayed decision may have prevented the Lakers or the Toronto Raptors to sign certain players, Leonard told Haynes that he was not attempting to sabotage any opposing team's ability to fill out a roster:

"I don't want to ever have that bad karma come back on me, trying to make the Lakers miss out on players they should have gotten or vice versa with the Raptors. That's just bad karma for me to try to just hold out longer just because they won't get players and they won't be competitive or whatever. I never thought of that. It was about just making a choice for me and my family. ... I don't ever want to screw nobody over. I just feel like that's bad karma."

The Lakers had managed to make enough moves prior to Leonard's decision to clear enough space for another max contract space alongside four-time NBA MVP LeBron James and six-time All-Star Anthony Davis, the latter who declined a $4 million trade kicker in effort to make room for Leonard. While general manager Rob Pelinka and Co. had money to spend, they opted to wait on Leonard—and it was all for naught.

Fortunately for the Lakers, free agency had slowed down after the initial wave as certain players, like Danny Green, chose to wait on Leonard before making a decision. And that helped the Purple and Gold fill out a roster.

Los Angeles managed to bring back Rajon Rondo, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso and JaVale McGee while also signing Green, DeMarcus Cousins and Quinn Cook despite missing out on Leonard.

Leonard told ESPN's Rachel Nichols that he had been "very close" to signing with the Lakers or Raptors instead of the Clippers. But when the Clippers managed to acquire six-time All-Star Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder, that was enough to convince Leonard to finally make a decision.