Kawhi Leonard, a consensus top 5 NBA player, expressed his desire to leave the San Antonio Spurs and is now on the trading block.
There are bountiful rumors as to what teams could be interested in pursuing a trade for Kawhi or where does he want to go, but the real question for a lot of people is: How did the Spurs so quickly go from the most stable franchise in the NBA to this level of dysfunction?
Kawhi missed most of last year, all but nine games of it, actually, with the quad injury. That’s what really kick-started this whole thing. Kawhi sustained the quad injury and tried to get healthy and come back, but he felt the Spurs and their medical staff was trying to rush the process.
That is why Kawhi had most of his medical treatment done in New York, living in northern New Jersey for much of the season. He had actually been seeing the 76ers team doctor in a weird loophole that I don’t think anyone actually understands. The Sixers may actually have more information on Kawhi’s health than the Spurs as a result.
Anyway, the Spurs tried to make Kawhi play when he didn’t feel like he was ready to. He estimated he was about 70 percent healthy, but they wanted him to play on that rather than wait until he was at 100 percent.
We could debate what he should have done there, but Kawhi started to really lose trust when his teammates started trash talking his rehab. Specifically, Tony Parker said that his own quad injury was 100 times worse than Kawhi’s, implying that it was Kawhi’s fault he wasn’t playing.
Head coach Gregg Popovich, though not as bluntly as Parker, didn’t exactly protect Kawhi when reporters questioned Leonard’s health.
Beyond the team, Kawhi feels out of place in San Antonio and also feels that the geographic location is preventing him from being the superstar off the court that he is on the court.
Kawhi has reportedly gotten lower offers on shoe deals than his contemporaries around the league. He feels that the only player definitively better than him is LeBron, and he should be getting the same endorsement opportunities as other superstars around the league. Being part of the Spurs’ machine has muted his superstar reputation.
Leonard is also a California native and is used to the spotlight that comes with that. San Antonio is a fine place, but it cannot provide what cities like Los Angeles can provide.
In normal situations like this, teams may be worried that the player will be a distraction for the new team. I don’t think Kawhi is someone that teams have to be worried about, though. Kawhi has never been a problem or a distraction for the Spurs until now, which I think means he genuinely wants out.
If he were to go to a new team and make a stink there, then that would show a character change. I think it’s clear that that isn’t the case here, though.
Between the team both trying to rush him back, seemingly nobody having his back in the media, and the muted reputation, Kawhi felt betrayed to the point where he believes the situation is untenable and now he wants out.
Featured Image via Flickr/Jose Garcia
