The Athletic: Kawhi and PG controlled practice schedule, choosing when to check into games etc

[TheNewEra]

Watch on YouTube

Here is the video and I forgot they had the same pilot. I don’t think Kawhi should catch flack for this it’s a inconvenience without it I guess but he was reasonably shook.

The situation was bad for the clippers last year but the main problem seems to be guys took that Warriors series with to much weight

[Pharmcat]

its amazing how people defend this snake...if lebron did half these things people would be all over him (with skip leading the charge)

[Edrees]

They mentioned they'd be kind of OK with Kawhi doing it but George doing it was a complete insult

[BodieB]

Weren't there rumors about this kind of thing being in Kawhi's contract or wanting these things from Toronto? I don't see how a new coach is going to come in like Darth Vader and alter the deal.

[TheNewEra]

its amazing how people defend this snake...if lebron did half these things people would be all over him (with skip leading the charge)

Lebron doesn’t have a ritual to maintain his body. Kawhi might have to move the timing of it this season. Kawhi came to LA to be closer to his family in SD and everyone knew this beforehand. He was using a helicopter and now he will likely find a new way.

All the other beefs just seem to be with Kawhi being quiet and to himself. Hopefully with Ibaka and his building relationship with Beverly and George he can open up more

[levon]

Leonard and George typically didn’t speak to the media until at least 45 minutes after games concluded, under the guise of postgame treatment or workouts. This usually resulted in their teammates speaking with the media first, and for longer, essentially becoming the public voices of the team.

Teammates also believed that Leonard and George were able to pick and choose when they played. Not only did they sit out games entirely, but also at times they accepted or declined playing time in the moment.

This is pretty pathetic.

[DTP]

Doc Rivers/Harrell is clearly leaking half of this; reminds me of that Lakers hit piece that came out after Walton got canned.

If you don't have the balls to address the issue when you are still employed, why should I care about your opinion now that you're a scorned woman?

All superstar players receive preferential treatment. Why are people acting naive? Star players have literally gotten coaches fired, hired, players traded, players signed to larger salaries, taking vacations mid season, arbitrarily sitting out games for rest, practices cancelled, etc

Lebron isn't called "LeGM" for nothing. Name a single star player in today's NBA that has not engaged in something similar to the above.

go find articles of Legm cancelling practice, showing up late, taking any gms of he wants, etc to match leonard/pg article then...Kobe/Wade use to not fully practice or at all during the latter stages of their careers but I never heard of them having power to cancel entire practices

Pretty sure LeBron had that same power with the Cavs and has it now with the Lakers. There's even a clip from the bubble on Markieff's birthday where they are doing a trivia game and LeBron says to Vogel -If Kieff answers this correctly, no practice tomorrow. Biggest difference is LeBron is a huge vocal leader that Kawhi isn't and LeBron is LeBron.

Hell, I even give my captains of my middle school bball team the option of canceling certain Saturday Practices....its not that huge of a deal. Its no secret most veteran teams don't practice much and even if practice is cancelled, doesn't mean guys can't get their work in. I think the being late to team flights and stuff is way more big of a deal.

[levon]

Remember that Lakers and Raptors article about Kawhi's camp making extra under-the-table demands that people chalked up to sour grapes?

[macNcheese3]

KL and PG are a bunch of divas.

[TheNewEra]

Doc Rivers/Harrell is clearly leaking half of this; reminds me of that Lakers hit piece that came out after Walton got canned.

If you don't have the balls to address the issue when you are still employed, why should I care about your opinion now that you're a scorned woman?

All superstar players receive preferential treatment. Why are people acting naive? Star players have literally gotten coaches fired, hired, players traded, players signed to larger salaries, taking vacations mid season, arbitrarily sitting out games for rest, practices cancelled, etc

Lebron isn't called "LeGM" for nothing. Name a single star player in today's NBA that has not engaged in something similar to the above.

go find articles of Legm cancelling practice, showing up late, taking any gms of he wants, etc to match leonard/pg article then...Kobe/Wade use to not fully practice or at all during the latter stages of their careers but I never heard of them having power to cancel entire practices

Pretty sure LeBron had that same power with the Cavs and has it now with the Lakers. There's even a clip from the bubble on Markieff's birthday where they are doing a trivia game and LeBron says to Vogel -If Kieff answers this correctly, no practice tomorrow. Biggest difference is LeBron is a huge vocal leader that Kawhi isn't and LeBron is LeBron.

Hell, I even give my captains of my middle school bball team the option of canceling certain Saturday Practices....its not that huge of a deal. Its no secret most veteran teams don't practice much and even if practice is cancelled, doesn't mean guys can't get their work in. I think the being late to team flights and stuff is way more big of a deal.

To add to this Doc Rivers tried to not practice as much as he could.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nba.com/amp/clippers/clippers-dont-practice-often-save-energy

and then the whole team drama with passive aggressive and toxic without defined roles sounds familiar

Watch on YouTube

76ers fans better hope this man changed

[xinxin]

Not really surprised that all of this is coming out now. while we all know that superstars in any team and in any sport, get preferential treatment all the time, this is just at a different level.. I was always wondering how that load management BS was being taken by Kawhi's team mates.. how are they fine with that? now, we're finding out that some of them weren't cool with it..and not only that, load management as an issue was just the tip of the iceberg. as somebody said, this problem requires more than just firing Doc or Trez leaving..

[nikster]

its amazing how people defend this snake...if lebron did half these things people would be all over him (with skip leading the charge)

Lebron doesn’t have a ritual to maintain his body. Kawhi might have to move the timing of it this season. Kawhi came to LA to be closer to his family in SD and everyone knew this beforehand. He was using a helicopter and now he will likely find a new way.

All the other beefs just seem to be with Kawhi being quiet and to himself. Hopefully with Ibaka and his building relationship with Beverly and George he can open up more

I guess Kawhi's chronic injury prevents him from being on time for team flights, or speaking to the media, or communicating effectively with his teammates

[nikster]

I'm thinking about how vindicated Spurs fans must feel right now.

Ingram > Purtle + Pride

Ingram looks way better now than he did 2 years. It's easy to play this I'm hindsight. Besides What would the Spurs doing with Ingram locked to a max contract and their current roster? They'd just be a treadmilling team anyway

[BlazersBroncos]

This sort of mentality doesnt win championships. That team wont go anywhere until one of the two pound puppies is moved for a pitbull.

[hoosierdaddy34]

Ok I get giving Kawhi a lot of rope...but PG? Why the hell would you give an infantile and emotionally fragile Paul George that sort of treatment when he hadn’t won a thing his entire career? It’s no wonder J Green left talking about “heart” as being a major reason for his departure.

[IgorK]

anyone putting this all on Doc Rivers' door step is only fooling themselves. The Clippers organization was courting Kawhi for a year and gave him anything he wanted including PG13 and all their preferential treatment. It will be interesting to see how those two behave as teammates this season in their walk years...no pressure to win it all!

Wrong. Doc Rivers is known to be a suck-up to his superstars and giving them heavy preference. He is directly responsible for his locker room culture.

[hoosierdaddy34]

I'm thinking about how vindicated Spurs fans must feel right now.

Ingram > Purtle + Pride

Ingram looks way better now than he did 2 years. It's easy to play this I'm hindsight. Besides What would the Spurs doing with Ingram locked to a max contract and their current roster? They'd just be a treadmilling team anyway

Actually no...that’s all on the Spurs and their lack of talent evaluation. Lakers fans told you how good that kid was going to be and Spurs fans all laughed at us. Now they are trying to desperately forget that trade while the Pelicans are giving Ingram a 5 year max.

[IgorK]

Weren't there rumors about this kind of thing being in Kawhi's contract or wanting these things from Toronto? I don't see how a new coach is going to come in like Darth Vader and alter the deal.

He's not. The best they can hope for is to reset the culture by eliminating the players who clashed with the superstars (Trez was first, Lou is next) and hoping that proves to be enough. Still unhealthy though - Kawhi is gonna have to learn how to step up as a leader or this isn't gonna end well for the Clippers.

[IgorK]

Ingram > Purtle + Pride

Ingram looks way better now than he did 2 years. It's easy to play this I'm hindsight. Besides What would the Spurs doing with Ingram locked to a max contract and their current roster? They'd just be a treadmilling team anyway

Actually no...that’s all on the Spurs and their lack of talent evaluation. Lakers fans told you how good that kid was going to be and Spurs fans all laughed at us. Now they are trying to desperately forget that trade while the Pelicans are giving Ingram a 5 year max.

One of the Spurs forum mods here still thinks "the jury is out"

[The_Hater]

Reason number 379 that Kawhi should have stayed in Toronto. He went from unknown to owning an entire country in just 7 months.