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

[CIN-C-STAR]

wow, this has to be the stupidest thing I've ever read in realgm (with all respect)

I don't care the reason, whether it was accidental or on purpose. Point is they mishandled the medical situation and it has come to where we are.

How can it be the stupidest thing you read when the statement was open-ended? Does that mean you have the poorest reading comprehension on here?

again, the medical situation was out of their hand on august, the 8th, are you saying that they mishandled it so bad, kawhi had to miss all season? and what exactly could they have done in the time between playoffs and august 8th? he was rehabbing/taking time off from the ankle injury anyway and at some point he must have been to vacation too. it's not like they made him play in the summerleague.

And an overlooked aspect of all this is why did Kawhi spend weeks in China hocking his shoes instead of getting ready for the season if he already knew he had a serious injury?
Maybe he should have been getting ready for the season instead??
Seems like he had already checked out on the team and his priorities were elsewhere tbh.

[BigShaq34]

I'm tired of hearing about Kawhi the dude can't even speak for himself its pathetic. Never talks. It's always someone else speaking for him. Grow some **** balls you **** pussy.

If you want out just say it. End of story. Now there are rumors swirling about you because you never say anything.

Can't even express himself. **** waste of a man.

[-TheDocOfDenial]

I'm tired of hearing about Kawhi the dude can't even speak for himself its pathetic. Never talks. It's always someone else speaking for him. Grow some **** balls you **** pussy.

If you want out just say it. End of story. If you don't talk now there will be rumors swirling about you which there is now

Can't even express himself. **** waste of a man.

Big facts. Dude is toxic.

[UcanUwill]

Man has become one of my most disliked players.

[JellosJigglin]

Man has become one of my most disliked players.

Curious...what if the roles were reversed? What if he was on the Lakers, and trying to force his way to the Spurs. How would people feel about that?

[Jedi32]

Man has become one of my most disliked players.

Curious...what if the roles were reversed? What if he was on the Lakers, and trying to force his way to the Spurs. How would people feel about that?

I think we both know the answer to that question

[Plutonashfan]

Quitter and a coward, no wonder he doesn't get along with Pop

His a grown ass man, why the hell is listening to his uncle is mind-blogging? Non of this makes sense and the injury is just an excuse. It's like that cupcake in football that has his non qualified mom as his agent. Never have you family be your manager or agent it always ends badly.

[The Laker Kid]

Always two sides to a story. If you put yourself in Kawhi's shoes, you'd realize how his life altering traumatic childhood is still haunting him today. Not to mention Uncle Dennis running the show. If I'm the Lakers, I'd refrain from adding him to the roster, since his group operates in a peculiar way; and also the potential for a Big Baller Brand vs. Dennis Robertson vs. Klutch Sports nuclear war.

[G35]

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

Not me, I don't have anything against Kawhi, I think he's being very passive here and letting others control the narrative when he could make some type of statement but that's his choice.


What I keep coming back to is that Pop is not this master commander of the Spurs ship. I will always say that Duncan helped to create and maintain this culture by allowing Pop to coach him the way he wanted to.

If you don't think a lot of coaches would have liked to have a Duncan who will do pretty much whatever the coach says, then you are just slow. Almost all coaches have a my way or the highway mentality, but in the NBA, the players rule and even the most hard line coaches will bend to their star players desires. If the two happen to intersect great, but if not then the coach is gone.

I can't think of any other superstar player that would have worked with Pop as well as Duncan did. And its funny the narrative that Lebron would have had a better career with Pop is funny. Coaches do not determine Lebron...Lebron determines coaches. I can see Lebron playing out his rookie contract and getting out of SA as fast as he could declare "Unrestricted Free Agent".

For all of Pop's pseudo progressive talk (yeah stole that from someone I read earlier) he sure wasn't very progressive with this situation was he......

[G35]

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.

Thank you.
The most logical explanation for this is not some elaborate conspiracy by the Spurs to have Kawhi misdiagnosed to drive down his market value. The Spurs have no track record of such shenanigans in decades of work, and have, in fact, paid their superstars market value and even at times over market value to reward their loyalty.
The most logical explanation is rarely an elaborate conspiracy, particularly when there are no facts to bolster the conspiracy.

Tim Duncan has never been the highest paid player when he clearly could have gone down the Kevin Garnett road and asked for the maximum.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/tim-duncan-retires-as-nbas-4th-highest-paid-player

Duncan earned more than $236 million in salary during his time in the NBA, according to Spotrac Opens a New Window. data. The highest single-season total came during the 2009-10 NBA season, when Duncan earned more than $22 million. The total could have been even higher – Duncan took a significant pay cut over his final four seasons to allow San Antonio to pursue additional talent in free agency.

Only three NBA players in history were paid more money than Duncan. Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett, also 40, has earned more than $326 million during his storied 21-year career. Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who also retired after the 2015-16 NBA season, earned more than $323 million. Shaquille O’Neal, the legendary center and longtime Duncan rival, ranks third with more than $286 million in career earnings.

The reason why the Spurs never had any of these issues is because Duncan never pushed the Spurs to pay him the max. He was willing to sign below market value contracts, even in his prime, to help the Spurs sign other players and stay under the luxury tax. The Spurs have been living on the Duncan gravy train for 20 years.

Do people know that after Duncan made 22 mill in 2010 his salary started going down? He went from 22 mill to 18 mill to 17 mill to 9 mill in 2013! 9 Million! What legend signs for that as a key player on the roster. He was still arguably their most valuable player.
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/san-antonio-spurs/tim-duncan-2703/cash-earnings/


Now they come up against a player who wants to get paid and it hasn't worked out so well. Even now Duncan has not come out and said anything controversial unlike Bruce Bowen who called out Kawhi......

[Ballerhogger]

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

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.

He wanted the super max

Yes and I don't think spurs were going to not give him the Supermax. They wanted to retain him for less.

I believe their motive to pay Supermax is what created the distrust between the two groups. Kawhis group realised he wasn't getting Supermax so they decided to ensure kawhi was 100% healthy as a priority.

I think it's possible that spurs rushed him back to show he wasn't the player he was and reduce his value.

some 30 for 30 stuff right here

[Ballerhogger]

Getting ugiler by the day spurs, at this point management has to cut their losses , or the bad PR will start to ensue.

[Yank3525]

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.

This I agree with.

[Duke4life831]

Chris Broussard says a person close to Kawhi says the story is bs.

Read on Twitter

?s=09

Jalen Rose this morning said this story is legit and heard about it when it happened. So two super credible guys with amazing sauces with two different sides to the story....

[cdubbz]

I'm tired of hearing about Kawhi the dude can't even speak for himself its pathetic. Never talks. It's always someone else speaking for him. Grow some **** balls you **** pussy.

If you want out just say it. End of story. Now there are rumors swirling about you because you never say anything.

Can't even express himself. **** waste of a man.

Used to love kawhi but he’s definitely coming off as weak. We haven’t heard from him at all. He’s being a little you know what

[BigShaq34]

Chris Broussard says a person close to Kawhi says the story is bs.

Read on Twitter

?s=09

Jalen Rose this morning said this story is legit and heard about it when it happened. So two super credible guys with amazing sauces with two different sides to the story....

the problem with kawhi is that he won't say anything and these rumors will continue to escalate

he won't be a man and speak for himself

[Ballerhogger]

From kawhi point view he felt like he was being rushed so he wouldn’t get super max that he wanted from the spurs . The spurs are known for not supermaxing players .

[jason bourne]

We keep hearing this kind of negative news on Kawhi that he's become the biggest a-hole in the NBA. If all of this is true, then it's hard to see the Spurs putting the $219 supermax back on the table.

[Jedi32]

Chris Broussard says a person close to Kawhi says the story is bs.

Read on Twitter

?s=09

I figured it was.

[Patsfan1081]

Meh, I do believe Leonard is a really personal guy, prob too much so. The big reason Boston can't even get a foot in the door in trade negotiations is because they can't get any info on his current situation. Leonard could at least smooth things out a tiny bit by coming up and making a statement, doesn't look like that's happening though.