Kawhi Leonard Reportedly Hidden from Spurs Staffers in NY During Injury Rehab

[RussellandFlow]

Just when you thought this situation could not get weirder.

[Jedi32]

Losing some respect for the spurs with all these lame leaks.

[mtron929]

I do find it funny how the Lakers fans seem to defend Leonard's character and behaviors more than the Spurs fans.

[zimpy27]

I do find it funny how the Lakers fans seem to defend Leonard's character and behaviors more than the Spurs fans.

Spurs fans will always back the spurs organisation.

Everyone else should think for themselves about it. When you understand the motives (money) of both parties then you understand how this happened.

IT situation definitely didn't help having just happened. It set a precedent of distrust of players against organisations. Boston essentiallu got off free from it. Just blamed their medical staff.

I think it could be the same in any organisation, we just don't know until it happens again

[Gus McCrae]

That settles it. Deng for Kawhi

[infinite11285]

[Rust_Cohle]

I'm legitimately stunned how anyone could defend Kawhi's actions after all of this.

His "group" just wants to go to a big market and Kawhi's uncle has completely taken over every aspect of his life and has made Kawhi look worse than ever. Kawhi is definitely taken advantage of, and the fact that he's a grown man who can't speak up is troubling. So his uncle does it through back channels.

[Gus Fring]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2784689-kawhi-leonard-reportedly-hidden-from-spurs-staffers-in-ny-during-injury-rehab?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national

Summary via someone from Reddit:


Here's my quick write up from the full podcast for those that don't want to listen to the whole hour and 15 minutes.

At the All Star game in NO a few years ago Kawhi and his group are at a hotel and the Spurs security tells them what time they need to get them out to get them to the game on time. Uncle Dennis says "no we're not doing this, this is when we're going to leave". They decide to leave when Uncle Dennis says and they end up stuck in traffic a block away from the hotel. The police end up letting them through but it would take them an hour and a half to get to the arena. They ended up having Kawhi get out, put a hood over his head, and walk to the Arena from the hotel.



Uncle Dennis thinks the Spurs are too controlling but he doesn't have any experience representing any other players from any other teams.



Spurs gave Kawhi and his camp complete control of his "rehab" starting August 8th. The rehab was controlled by his own doctors although Wright does not know if he really did shop around for a bunch of doctors or not. Spurs had absolutely no say in his rehab process at all which is why Pop would refer reporters to Kawhi's group when asked questions about his status.



Wright thinks the Spurs were too accommodating to Kawhi and his group which is why all of this has happened. Says Kawhi realized he was a star in the league and wanted to be treated as such. In the words of Wright "Spurs gave him an inch and Kawhi took a mile".



If Spurs offer supermax he thinks he would re-sign (because $$$ talks) but at this point the Spurs probably don't trust the people around Leonard enough to offer up that amount of money (would be 30% of their Cap). (This leads me to believe that the rumors about the Spurs not offering the supermax are true.)



The Spurs have told Wright that they want to get Kawhi in a room ALONE. No Dennis, no one else speaking for him. Just Kawhi.



The Spurs would get a call from Uncle Dennis saying "Kawhi wants this and that" but the Spurs would never know if it was really Kawhi's wishes or his Uncles.



The Spurs don't believe that his Uncle has his best interest at heart but know that his Uncle means a lot to him due to the fact that he was there for him after his father was murdered.



Wright did not write the story about Parkers comments because he knew exactly that it would be taken out of context as soon as he said it. He says the reports about Kawhi being betrayed by Tony's comments are excuses coming from his Uncle.



The reason Kawhis teammates were frustrated and called a team meeting was because Kawhi's group kept throwing out return dates which would come and go. Eventually the team got fed up and confronted him about all the pump faking. Manu's comments a week or so before the team meeting seems to confirm that the team knew they were getting hit with the Okie Doke by Kawhi's group.



Kawhi told them he would be back for the game against NO on March 19th which was picture day. Kawhi showed up for pictures but as soon as they started pre game shoot around he left. That night after the game they had the team meeting and two days later Kawhi left for NY and never came back to the team.



Up to the point before the trade request in June Wright talked to multiple people in the organisation who were confident they could get Pop to sit down with Kawhi and iron everything out. The death of Pop's wife complicated things and it took a while for him to get the meeting with Kawhi. Kawhi didn't want to meet with Pop and did everything he would to avoid the meeting. At that point the trade request news came out.



Kawhi's side feels like Spurs are leaking info that makes him look bad. Wright thinks those are excuses and that he just doesn't want to play in San Antonio. He doesn't see a good ending for either side here.



Wright says people think he's exaggerating about Uncle Dennis but some of the things that he requests/demands are unrealistic. According to him some of the stories are hard to believe and he laughs when he thinks about them. (I should note that Jeff McDonald, another Spurs beat writer has compared Uncle Dennis to Lavar Ball).



Kawhi doesn't want to go to the Lakers. His preferred destination is the Clippers but the Clippers have absolutely no assets that the Spurs want. He expects a dark horse team to come in and nab Kawhi in a trade.



He does not see Kawhi handling the LA media scene very well. Says he was well protected from the media in San Antonio and doesn't think he is ready for an environment like that.


TL;DR: Uncle Dennis is literally Lavar Ball

Shoutout u/yungtaxplayer, he's the OP of this on reddit.

[Jedi32]

I do find it funny how the Lakers fans seem to defend Leonard's character and behaviors more than the Spurs fans.

I find it funny how people are just piling on kawhi with no proof. I have a feeling more posters would be backing kawhi if he didn't reportedly prefer LA.

[ChuckChilly]

As much as I want to dislike Kawhi, I seriously think he may be autistic, so Im going to chalk up his actions to that along with his nutty uncle.

[DROB27]

Losing some respect for the spurs with all these lame leaks.

Or maybe you should lose respect for the man doing all of this ?

[HornetsFan29]

If I'm Magic I would not want him on the lakers and just go after Butler.

[dYYYh.k²]

good communication is crucial to any relationship

[Jagic Mohnson]

This situation makes Lavar look normal. Lavar is just an attention whore where as Kawhis Uncle seems like a Svengali type. It reminds me of Kevin Loves Uncle Brian Wilson who had a Svengali guru that controlled all aspects of his life.

[amcoolio]

Maybe Kawhi's best years are behind him. The Spurs were the perfect location for him...if he goes anywhere else and tries to be the man, it could turn into a Carmelo Anthony-late Knicks situation rather quickly where he is making top 10 player money but in reality is just a top 40-50 player. Defense falling off very quickly

[mtron929]

I do find it funny how the Lakers fans seem to defend Leonard's character and behaviors more than the Spurs fans.

I find it funny how people are just piling on kawhi with no proof. I have a feeling more posters would be backing kawhi if he didn't reportedly prefer LA.

You think so? Him receiving criticism probably has little to do with where he wants to go.

[obiwanginobili]

I mean Michael Wright is an ESPN reporter who clearly has a lot of respect for the Spurs, but its not like this was any sort of leak. It was a reporter who is stating what he saw in his day to day work as a beat writer

[Jedi32]

Losing some respect for the spurs with all these lame leaks.

Or maybe you should lose respect for the man doing all of this ?

We don't know if this is true, and what's the point of releasing this now?

[G R E Y]

I'm legitimately stunned how anyone could defend Kawhi's actions after all of this.

His "group" just wan tot go to a big market and Kawhi's uncle has completely taken over every aspect of his life and has made Kawhi look worse than ever. Kawhi is definitely taken advantage of, and the fact that he's a grown man who can't speak up is troubling. So his uncle does it through back channels.

Excellent summary, thanks for doing that.

Is it that he can't speak up, or that he's comfortable going about things this way? He avoided Pop who flew out to CA to meet him, and that was a prearranged meeting. The double speak is what's troubling, like telling Danny Green he wants to come back, then the trade request blindsides everyone.

The uncle saying the Spurs are too controlling is just a ruse to justify his own controlling behaviour (such as in the instances you outlined, and in ones to come, I'm sure). Funny how when Leonard was with his previous agent (who the Spurs loved dealing with), none of these issues - sensitivities to team comments, Spurs being too controlling, medical treatment disagreements - were ever issues, even though Leonard would get chewed out by teammates on the court, even though Leonard was part of the Spurs ethos, even though Leonard was treated for the same issue he had again, and then he re-signed for a max contract. I wonder whether Leonard would allow himself to be represented like this if the person making these decisions weren't his uncle? If the answer is no, then the uncle shouldn't be in that position. If yes, then it's all on Kawhi.

Almost every single "quiet and humble" athlete have turned into huge drama queens. Rose, Durant, Kawhi and I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of others.

All the quiet ones are the most dangerous ones. Idk who's next, maybe Anthony Davis?

Does Davis have a seedy uncle?

Yeah, silence and humility are often erroneously equated. But the concern, too, is that he is using silence in so many bad ways. People keep saying he hasn't said anything directly (imagine how the Spurs feel), so he can't be judged as having done anything wrong, as if he's unaware of what's transpiring on his behalf. But silence is part of the big problem: he avoids communicating directly, and that is a choice, and that is despite his having a good relationship with RC and Pop. Doesn't seem to be enough, as shown by the blatant unprofessionalism with which they've been treated. I am increasingly stunned at the inception-level alteration that has been transpiring. Quite the revelation.

[Gus Fring]

This makes no sense. If Kawhi wanted to go back then, then he could have just said he wanted to leave like he is saying now.

I believe spurs are spreading this to suggest their medical staff didn't mess up and the whole medical issues in NY were just a ruse.

The most logical explanation to all of this is that the spurs organisation mishandled kawhis medical condition either by accident or on purpose to not pay him a big pay salary.

This would be the most elaborate misdirect in Spurs history over something as minor and as common as a misdiagnosis. I highly doubt the Spurs would go through trouble of lying to the media to make their medical staff look better, especially after the way the Spurs and Pop himself have admitted their faults in the past. If they didn't want to offer Kawhi the contract, they could just not offer it to him and skip the BS.

I don't think the most logical explanation in this situation would be something that's highly uncharacteristic for an organization. I think given the information we know about Kawhi's group that has come out, the legal issues, controlling uncle who wants to build a business, shady agents with peculiar relationships, rumors of a big pay day, etc. I think it's alot more likely they are behind this.

It just seems like you have to do some real mental gymnastics to think the Spurs are more likely to be at fault here given all the information we have.