Kawhi Leonard has every right to be pissed off about this situation with the San Antonio Spurs. They misdiagnosed his injury and in the end, it cost him his 2017-18 NBA season. The tension between the Spurs and Kawhi seems to only continue according to ESPN.
Teammates wouldn’t even see Kawhi often and when they did catch a glimpse of him it was always brief. Spurs veteran Gaurd Manu Ginobili said picture day on Jan 13 was the last time they saw him in a long time.
“It was very brief but good to see him around.”
This type of relationship only would continue and right now no signs point to Kawhi being in a Spurs uniform for the 2018-19 NBA season. Coach Gregg Popovich had every right to be upset as well, the team doctors screwed up and now he’s stuck with answering tough questions and he has zero answers. When doesn’t Pop have answers (outside of his quirky halftime and post-game commentary) this is one of the best coaches to ever coach missing his best player. We do know Spurs doctors cleared Kawhi to play back in December of 2017 but it’s clear he wasn’t ready.
On March 21, after the Spurs beat the Wizards, ESPN caught up with Kawhi asking him to explain the situation and if he feels he’s still not able to play.
“I mean, why else would I not be playing? People are just looking for spin,” Leonard continued. “I haven’t been here long. I’ve been here six years. The Spurs have been here way longer than that. People are gonna go with that take first.”
This entire situation is dragging and it’s taking a talent away from the game. The Spurs were bounced out of the playoffs losing to the defending champion Golden State Warriors. At this point, we’d expect Kawhi to be in a new uniform next season, flip the pages to see some likely landing spots.