The last we saw of Kawhi Leonard was on the 13th of January and he only played a total of nine games before sustaining another injury that pretty much ended his regular season. A month before the end of the regular season, it was announced and expected that Kawhi would make his return to the court at the NBA Playoffs and many feared that a fresh Kawhi could increase the chances of the San Antonio Spurs winning the NBA Championship
News Flash: Kawhi Leonard just sustained another injury…AGAIN…or has he?
Look, we cannot label Kawhi as a liar but all of this seems too good to be true. The man just recovered from an injury that kept him away from action for the whole season and he’s injured again, from what? Carrying grocery bags?
Here’s a thing you should know by now; Kawhi Leonard is set to make his exit away from the San Antonio Spurs. It’s crazy but it appears to be that way and it’s not like we’ve heard or seen a pretty ugly nasty exchange of words between Kawhi and the people from the Spurs but it just so happens that Kawhi wants to drift off to another team.
Take a look why that may be the case.
Ka-why Carry The Load
If you’ve been watching the San Antonio Spurs after their sensational championship 2013/14 season you would have noticed that Kawhi Leonard became the man of the team due to him holding down LeBron James in the 2014 NBA Finals and winning The Finals MVP. You’d also notice Kawhi became the face of the franchise as he’d have two All-Star nods and a runner up in the MVP award race (twice) and to be in the conversations of being a top 3 player in the NBA (behind LeBron and Kevin Durant). So why not trust this man to actually carry the team? That’s the thing…it’s not Kawhi’s thing. Right after sustaining an injury at last year’s Western Conference Game 1 match against the Golden State Warriors, the Spurs lost their groove and would get swept by the Warriors. Many argue that had Kawhi not gotten injured, the Spurs would’ve won their second championship in three years. And that may have gotten to Kawhi’s head because he’s still young and still about to enter his prime and who knows maybe he doesn’t ready for that kind of responsibility that many other young players would die for.
Ka-why Not Feel Part of The Team?
For those of you who don’t know, Kobe Bryant wasn’t always a team person and it was reported he always kept his distance away from his Lakers team but he eventually stayed with his team and would win two more championships (without Shaq). So what’s different about Kawhi? We can’t exactly pinpoint the answer because the man is very private and likes to keep his business close to him and maybe that’s what makes him “not feel part of the team”. It’s one thing to be different from the team but it’s a complete major thing to not feel part of the team because that clearly indicates that you don’t belong to the team and that could be the case of Kawhi Leonard. But it’s quite to believe that when the San Antonio Spurs are a family-like orientated team that makes everybody feel at home. Or there could be something about the Spurs’ culture that doesn’t sit well with Kawhi.
Ka-why Behind The Scenes
Perhaps there’s something major going on that has not been reported due to the Spurs’ efforts to keep this drama as private as it can be and if that’s the case, there could be pretty bad blood between Kawhi and the San Antonio Spurs. Teammates feel Kawhi isn’t doing things right and just by that one can easily tell that’s tension in the air. Like earlier stated, it can’t be pinpointed to the exact issue but all we know is that head coach Gregg Poppovich isn’t pleased with this drama because being in the Playoffs, one could really use Kawhi Leonard to chase another championship but because of this drama, one can never know if Kawhi isn’t just staying out of the Playoffs but rather staying out the team completely.
Right now, the Spurs are in a heap of trouble as they are down 2-0 against the Warriors in the First Round of the NBA Playoffs and it would be an incredible shame for the Spurs to make an early exit even though it’s at the hands of the defending champions.
We just hope we’ll get official word from Kawhi himself.
KA-WHY THO!?
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HEADER: poundingtherock.com
IMAGE 1: sanantonio.com
IMAGE 2: uproxx.com
IMAGE 3: thesource.com
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