After spending nearly six weeks in New York rehabbing his quad injury, Kawhi Leonard is back in San Antonio, along with his advisor, according to Chris Haynes of ESPN.com (Twitter link). However, for now, there’s no set date lined up for Leonard to meet with the Spurs’ brass.
As we’ve detailed ad nauseam over the last few weeks and months, Leonard and the Spurs have been somewhat at odds this season over the diagnosis and treatment of his troublesome quad issue, with Leonard’s own doctors disagreeing with team doctors about the nature of the injury. That disagreement has been a source of tension between the Spurs and Leonard’s camp.
As we relayed on Tuesday, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Michael C. Wright shared several new details on the Leonard situation this week, and their piece is worth reading in full. Shelburne and Wright provided some specifics on why both sides are frustrated — the Spurs don’t like injury treatment for their franchise player being out of their hands, while Leonard’s camp was bothered by the team’s resistance to outside opinions and by Gregg Popovich‘s apparent public questioning of their handling of the situation.
While it appears a meeting between the Spurs and Leonard has yet to be formally scheduled, it’s expected to happen at some point, and the club remains confident that fences can be mended. However, as Shelburne and Wright detailed in their report, it’s not clear whether team ownership will sign off a super-max contract offer following this season’s drama, and it’s also not known whether Leonard would accept such an offer.
Still, Leonard being back in San Antonio is a first step — we should hear in the not-too-distant future about plans for a sit-down between the two sides.
Of course he’s back in San Antonio. ….the team isn’t meeting, playing, together anymore. Everyone’s home for the summer.
He likely took the year “off” because he didn’t want to be subjected to Popavich’s maniacal and irrational liberal lunacy.
I believe a lot of Spurs fans will “take time off” too…until Popavich is measured for a straight jacket and sent to a group home.
All I have to say is: what?
That’s right ! What?
Go home, you’re drunk
Many consider Popovich the greatest coach in the history of the NBA. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
What
Are you calling the best(or second to Jackson) coach in NBA history a lunatic?
It sure looks like he is….
A head scratcher.
All the B.S., aging players, no Kawhi. They still made the playoffs.
There’s no way you give this dude a max if you are the Spurs. He wasn’t even around to root the team on during the playoffs, it would be insanely awkward to have Pop coach that dude again plus imagine how the rest of the team looks at him. Bring Fultz and Saric to SA along with that Sixers pick which could be Wendell or Bamba.
Respectfully I disagree, you don’t just trade a top 5 player in the league for players that could be good or not. Don’t take a chance on something you already have.
mhdunbar, what in the blue heck are you talking about! Pop is potentially the best coach in NBA history, has great relationships with almost all of his players, and gets the most out of each one of them. If Kawhi thinks Pop is being “maniacal”, it’s because he is soft and over sensitive.
Popovich, on espn in 2017: “people have to be made to feel uncomfortable, and especially white people. . . We still have no clue of what being born white means. . . there really is no such thing as whiteness, but we kind of made that up.”
This is dumb and contradictory, but they’re not really his words. It’s a lefty lecture being taught at US colleges, and Pops does not do that great of a job with it.
I’m sure his Trump-hate is legit, as Trump is polarizing and is okay with vitriol.
I think once Leonard is gone Pops may get back to being more normal. Leonard is not soft but may be over-sensitive on race.
When Leonard leaves, Spurs could be a Lebron landing-spot. Cavs, Sixers, Lakers, Spurs.