RACISM IN CUBA
Meyers Leonard spoke about the highs and lows of his Heat tenure, with an injury keeping him out for the rest of the season.
Re the Feb. 21 story, “‘A history of defiance’:” It is an insulting disservice to the legacies of Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks to mention Angela Davis in the same sentence with those two remarkable and admirable women. Davis is neither.
She is an avowed communist who has hypocritically reaped capitalism’s paychecks throughout her adult life. She espouses the fanatasy of a racist-free society in Cuba under socialism, but Afro-Cubans are disproportionately poor, incarcerated, and underrepresented in positions of power.
– Lou Hernández,
Pembroke Pines
Meyers Leonard’s first season with the Heat was derailed by an ankle injury last February, and a shoulder injury cut short his second season with the organization.
“That’s life, if I’m being
honest,” Leonard said Monday in his first comments to the media since undergoing successful season-ending surgery on his left shoulder on Feb. 2. “You know, when this happened, I actually thought to myself, like, ‘Why in the world?’ And I almost smiled through the adversity.”
After spending the first three weeks of February in Los Angeles, where Leonard had the surgery, the veteran center traveled with the team to Oklahoma City for Monday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Leonard will fly back to Miami with the team following the game, which marks the end of the Heat’s seven-game trip.
“It’s obviously frustrating to have a season-ending injury, and not only that but being away from the team for quite a few games was not fun for me because I enjoy camaraderie, I enjoy the chemistry,” said Leonard, who joined his teammates on the Heat’s bench for the two games played in Los Angeles at Staples Center during the trip. “I feel like I have a voice in our locker room, and that’s something I always want to be able to use. It’s important to me to do everything I can to help the team. So for now, I’ll continue to use my voice.”
Leonard, 28, injured his shoulder in the Heat’s Jan. 9 road win over the Washington Wizards. He only ended up playing in three games (two starts) this season before the injury, averaging 3.3 points on
42.9 percent shooting on threes and 2.3 rebounds.
Leonard said the early stages of his rehab from shoulder surgery “have gone very well.” He underwent surgery on his left shoulder in 2016 when he was with the Portland
Trail Blazers.
“I’ve felt that pain before, unfortunately. So I knew what I had done,” Leonard said when asked if he knew whether his latest shoulder injury was as serious as it turned out to be “it didn’t look that significant. I’m sure [Erik Spoelstra] was probably like, ‘What in the hell is Meyers Leonard doing?’ But yeah, I knew. That’s why I sat down. I couldn’t really talk for a couple of minutes. I was just trying to take some deep breaths and gather myself.”
Leonard returned to the Heat as a free agent this past offseason, signing a two-year deal topping $19 million. The contract includes a salary of about $9.4 million this season and a 10.2 million team option next season.
It’s possible that Leonard has played his final game as a member of the Heat because of that team option that would allow Miami to get out of the contract this upcoming offseason. But Leonard said he hopes his Heat career continues past this season.
“I will say this, sometimes you get a sense in life about certain places, certain people,” Leonard said. “I really like it here, and that’s sincere. The people, their values, what this organization stands for means something to me. So we’ll see what happens. Sure the business at the end of the day is a business. But we’ll see
what happens.
“My wife always says that I live with Disney goggles on. What she means by that is [glass] half full plus some. It’s just like whatever happens, happens. I just come to learn that hardship and pain makes you who you are. So we’ll see what happens. But I’ll give my absolute best to show my value in ways that I can right now, show that I’m getting strong with my shoulder and with everything else and we’ll see what happens.”
With Leonard expected to miss the rest of the season, the Heat applied for a $4.7 million disabled player exception but was still waiting to be formally granted the exception by the league as of Saturday. The exception is worth half of the disabled player’s salary, which in this case is $4.7 million of Leonard’s $9.4 million salary this season.
Leonard, who spent the first seven seasons of his NBA career with the Trail Blazers before he was dealt to the Heat in July 2019 as part of the fourteam Jimmy Butler trade, played two very different roles in his first season with Miami.
Before the NBA suspended last season on March 11 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Leonard averaged 6.1 points while shooting 52 percent from the field and 42.9 percent on threes, 5.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 20.1 minutes through 49 games (49 starts) as a full-time starter for the Heat.
Then after Leonard missed each of the 16 games prior to the league shutdown because of a sprained left ankle, he was not in the starting lineup or rotation when the Heat’s season resumed in August. Leonard logged just 31 total minutes in three games during the Heat’s 21-game playoff run, and he admitted this past offseason that his injured ankle contributed to his diminished role when last season restarted.
This season, it’s a shoulder injury that’s keeping Leonard off the court.
“I finally had what I wanted,” Leonard said of the full-time starting role he had for a chunk of last season. “Prior to the ankle injury, I was starting and felt that I had a significant role on this team, was helping us win games. And it just, honestly, brought a lot of joy to my life. It’s something that my career in Portland, those seven years, was up and down. But I finally felt that I was consistent every night and I was impacting winning. And, again there was nothing I wanted more.
“I talk about it all the time: I have an amazing wife, great family, great friends, with an amazing organization here with the Miami Heat. And, unfortunately, a couple of injuries have really dinged me up.”
NUNN’S SHOOTING SURGE
Heat guard Kendrick Nunn entered Monday’s matchup against the Thunder averaging 17.7 points while shooting 51.3 percent from the field and 44.6 percent on threes on 7.2 attempts from threepoint range, 3.7 rebounds, two assists and 1.4 steals in nine games in February.
Among players averaging seven or more threepoint attempts, only Paul George, Terry Rozier, Lonzo Ball, Justin Holiday, Zach LaVine and Gary Trent Jr. have been more efficient than Nunn from beyond the arc this month.
“Definitely shooting the ball well, as of now,”
Nunn said. “Just in rhythm. I’m just in the flow of the game. Not any play calls or things like that, but just being in the right position at the right time and just being harder to guard. That’s just to keep moving and find open shots.”
INJURY REPORT
Heat guard Tyler Herro was questionable going into Monday’s game because of a right hip contusion he sustained Saturday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Heat ruled out Avery Bradley (right calf strain), Goran Dragic (left ankle sprain), Leonard (season-ending left shoulder surgery) and Chris Silva (left hip flexor strain).