Kawhi Leonard on the NBA detailing his injury, if he can play in back to backs

[GG0701]

If his load management is anything like it was with Toronto, which it almost certainly is, he's going to miss more than 13 games. There were multiple times where he sat out both games of a back to back and as many as 4 consecutive games for rest.

If I remember correctly he had a couple injuries and thats why he sat out the extra games. A twisted ankle and what not. Could be wrong but regardless, the point still stands. People dont say anything about "load management" if a player misses a a non-national TV game. They only care when its nationally televised. Literally the only time it's ever an issue. Then people go about their lives and don't bring it up. It's always been like this.

The reason people care in this case is because the Clippers and Kawhi have consistently been lying about the extent of his injuries. Saying he's healthy and never felt better when he's actually more hurt than he was last year now that he also has a left knee injury. Saying his load management will be a case by case basis when his rest days have already been decided well in advance. Those are the inconsistencies they've been fined for.

This is just a new argument for some people to stay mad.

First it was that he load manages at all that people were “upset” about.

Then people were saying they were “upset” because he was faking an injury.

Then once the NBA confirmed something was wrong, people were “upset” about the league’s revenue and the little kids.

It’s just finding any reason to have outrage.

Kawhi not giving you a detailed report on his medical condition is not him lying about it. You don’t know how hurt he is vs last year and all of this is under the umbrella of tendinopathy. He was pretty straightforward about how it’s going to be monitored and they will see how it goes.

The Clippers were fined for what Doc said not anything else.

If people would take the time to look up and understand quadriceps tendinopathy, you would get why someone could feel technically healthy but not be healthy or why the amount of pain that their in would vary.

These people are human and do not solely exist for our entertainment and ESPN ratings. Kawhi having a condition that he has to manage and there not being a perfect answer should not be personally affecting people to having to attack him. Enjoy watching players play when they’re healthy.

[GG0701]

And I’m not saying fans can’t be disappointed but we are not entitled to these players putting us before their health. I’d rather have prime KD than played in game 5 KD.

[NBAFan93]

Im also surprised he had to do a press conference..last year he sprung LM on everyone and that was the end of it.

No one was worried when Westbrook was a DNP - Rest in Memphis last week either. There are some people legitimately worried about what it means for the fans, but they are a very small minority. Most of this noise is about Kawhi, the guy who chose to leave Toronto and San Antonio and not go to the Lakers.

Well, Westbrook didn’t rest on national TV and that game was against a team projected to be in the lottery. If Westbrook wanted to rest on national TV against a playoff team...yes, that probably would cause some uproar - especially since the NBA recently made a rule against that very thing.

[Bayside]

can someone explain to me why a player who is clearly the best player in the league would run away from b2bgames, losing the chance to get the MVP, if he really could play, what would be the logic behind it?

Playing when you're tired hurts your efficiency and averages (PPG, RPG, APG, etc...).

Kawhi doesn’t care about that. There’s such an agenda by people who didn’t start paying attention to him until this season to paint him as a type of person he’s never been.

If you listened/watched only 30% of what he does and says you’d know that he does have a medical condition, he is a private person and he doesn’t care about stats. He speaks in the most literal way and he doesn’t talk just to talk.

I don't think that is a fair assessment at all. We are all entitle to our opinions. But we cant begin to know how he works. you say he doesn't care, to explain his behavior. I think its more likely that he struggles with some sort of disability. His handlers do a good job.. Ie Uncle Dennis. For that I commend him for being possibly the first guy with Autism to play Basketball. Or he has off the charts social anxiety. That is why he is quiet, cant get eye contact. covers his face, is literal and makes social blunders.

So I have a hard time being critical of him because I think its amazing what he is overcoming, but some of the handling is not helping. Trashing Spurs spurs on way out, Zaza bs was ages ago yet still has a part in this ongoing saga about his health. Amazing player, Amazing guy, probably even more so than what people think at the moment.

And In response to the part where you say people discussing this are people who only started watching him this year is probably not exactly true. Seeing how you have a join date of a few days before Kawhi joined clips, you might not know the Kawhi discussions have been going on for years now. in various forms. He has been quite polarizing due to the handling of his tendonitis, or other personal issues he may be trying to avoid becoming public.

[manlisten]

If I remember correctly he had a couple injuries and thats why he sat out the extra games. A twisted ankle and what not. Could be wrong but regardless, the point still stands. People dont say anything about "load management" if a player misses a a non-national TV game. They only care when its nationally televised. Literally the only time it's ever an issue. Then people go about their lives and don't bring it up. It's always been like this.

The reason people care in this case is because the Clippers and Kawhi have consistently been lying about the extent of his injuries. Saying he's healthy and never felt better when he's actually more hurt than he was last year now that he also has a left knee injury. Saying his load management will be a case by case basis when his rest days have already been decided well in advance. Those are the inconsistencies they've been fined for.

This is just a new argument for some people to stay mad.

First it was that he load manages at all that people were “upset” about.

Then people were saying they were “upset” because he was faking an injury.

Then once the NBA confirmed something was wrong, people were “upset” about the league’s revenue and the little kids.

It’s just finding any reason to have outrage.

Kawhi not giving you a detailed report on his medical condition is not him lying about it. You don’t know how hurt he is vs last year and all of this is under the umbrella of tendinopathy. He was pretty straightforward about how it’s going to be monitored and they will see how it goes.

The Clippers were fined for what Doc said not anything else.

If people would take the time to look up and understand quadriceps tendinopathy, you would get why someone could feel technically healthy but not be healthy or why the amount of pain that their in would vary.

These people are human and do not solely exist for our entertainment and ESPN ratings. Kawhi having a condition that he has to manage and there not being a perfect answer should not be personally affecting people to having to attack him. Enjoy watching players play when they’re healthy.

That's one helluva strawman and has nothing to do with what I was talking about.

[TMU]

If this guy has always been honest about his injuries, this is a non-issue.

[jason bourne]

I grew up in San Francisco with VHS rental stores such as Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and the local Video Cafe. It was "Be kind, rewind."

I'm glad Kawhi's tee said... "Always" as it would not make sense today .

[Rockmaninoff]

So I’m at a point where I have 60 days vacation on the books but if I accumulate any more than that I lose them. I am going to start load managing and take a day off every other week. Go me!!!

I highly recommend that approach. I just had a run of every Friday off for two months, and it was incredible. My at work productivity improved as well.

[Pennebaker]

This whole story stinks. Something's fishy.

[Bornstellar]

Lol. This traitor will be lucky to be playing still in a few years, he's made of glass. And even before this whole injury issue with SA and load management, dude was always having all kinds of random nagging injuries here and there. He's more injury prone than Anthony Davis, which is saying something

[Chris_SoCal]

Something that is never mentioned is that Kobe "load managed" his last year. But to his credit, he did everything he could do to play away games. Those fans only had one more chance to see him play and he honored that. Most of his rest games came at home.

[QRich3]

Im also surprised he had to do a press conference..last year he sprung LM on everyone and that was the end of it.

No one was worried when Westbrook was a DNP - Rest in Memphis last week either. There are some people legitimately worried about what it means for the fans, but they are a very small minority. Most of this noise is about Kawhi, the guy who chose to leave Toronto and San Antonio and not go to the Lakers.

Well, Westbrook didn’t rest on national TV and that game was against a team projected to be in the lottery. If Westbrook wanted to rest on national TV against a playoff team...yes, that probably would cause some uproar - especially since the NBA recently made a rule against that very thing.

The NBA was happy with the reason they gave for it, and concluded it complied with the rules, why weren’t you? Also, the more qualifiers people put into it, the more it looks like it’s about Kawhi, not the situation itself.

[mdenny]

can someone explain to me why a player who is clearly the best player in the league would run away from b2bgames, losing the chance to get the MVP, if he really could play, what would be the logic behind it?

As someone who watched every game he played last year...I can answer this. I don't know the medicinal jargon...but dude has a bum knee. It doesn't go away with rest but it can be managed.

Watch the clippers games from this year. Mid 4th quarter he starts limping slightly when he can afford to. Walking to bench. Between plays. Post game. Etc

The more continuous the stress put on his knee (back to backs/every other night in playoffs) the worse BOTH knees get because of the nature of his condition and over-compensation on his other one. I was begging for him to stay in TO. We had helicopters filming him walking down stairs from jet planes. Dude looked like an old man walking down those stairs after a Chip run.

I like Kawhi. I don't think it's unethical for him and his employers to manage his health. There's so much grey area here. Add to all that context that he doesn't care as much as most pro athletes about individual awards...values his privacy and family life more than most pros .....plus he prioritizes championships over acknowledgements....then we can start to explain Kawhi's situation.

The Clippers are gonna have to change this narrative. Having Kawhi wear a tshirt is not gonna cut it. It's not Kawhi's job to appease ESPN or gambling degenerates. That's on Clipper's ownership.

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