Leonard’s future carries big impact
Kawhi Leonard has made the San Antonio Spurs more dysfunctional than the Knicks. At least for now.
The disgruntled and aloof Leonard has turned the so-called gold standard of NBA franchises on its head by reportedly asking for a trade. Those weren’t Leonard’s words because Leonard never speaks.
In all likelihood this is coming from “Kawhi’s camp” because all NBA superstars must have a camp: those behind-thescenes folks who never hold the player accountable but instead blame everyone else.
All we ever hear is “you don’t know the whole story” from Leonard’s people. Well, Leonard had all year to explain his actions or non-actions but he passed on that opportunity.
Of course, neither Leonard nor the Spurs are blameless here. Leonard appeared in nine games last season, spent much of his time rehabbing a quad injury in New York and didn’t even bother to attend any of the Spurs’ five playoff games.
His shocking behavior was mostly given a pass because Leonard was always viewed as the quiet and unassuming professional who played for the lovable and small-market Spurs and their gruff, left-leaning, can-do-no-wrong head coach Gregg Popovich.
Just imagine the uproar if LeBron James basically stayed away from his team for most of the season as everyone was led to believe he was healthy enough to play? Or Kobe Bryant?
Kristaps Porzingis took heat for spending all of last summer training in Latvia, for crying out loud.
The Spurs veteran point guard Tony Parker did publicly call out Leonard for making a slow recovery. It was a revealing comment that blew the lid off this charade. And in the grand scheme of things it probably didn’t help mend a strained relationship, much less a strained quad.
Nor was the healing process aided when stories surfaced that painted Leonard and only Leonard as the bad guy. Those stories weren’t being leaked by Leonard’s camp, so who would want that information out there? Of course, the obvious answer is the Spurs.
That’s a story for another day. For now, let’s focus on Leonard, who reportedly would prefer to be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
But Boston is also in play, the Sixers want in and you’d have to believe the Knicks would be interested.
Don’t rule out the Miami Heat or even the Los Angeles Clippers, but the smart money says Lakers because in a player’s league it is the employees who run the asylum.
Kyrie forced his way out of Cleveland last summer and found a favorable landing spot.
Two years ago, Kevin Durant took advantage of his free agency to leave a contender and join the 73-win Golden State Warriors.
Now, Leonard is calling the shots and two weeks from now LeBron James will be a free agent and likely on the move to the Lakers.
About a week ago former NBA player Andrew Bogut tweeted that not only will another super team be formed but the process had already started. Sounds like Bogut may be on to something.