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The 12-man roster Team USA will be deploying for the 2024 Paris Olympics appeared to be set. However, on Wednesday morning, it was announced that Kawhi Leonard won't be able to suit up for the national team amid ongoing concerns regarding the knee issues that have plagued him over the past four years.
It's not quite clear at the moment if Leonard suffered another injury or whether Team USA or the Los Angeles Clippers merely agreed to hold him out of the Olympic Games to avoid the risk of further injury. All indicators point out to the latter being the case. The managing director of the USA Men's National Basketball Team, Grant Hill, decried the fact that Leonard won't be able to join the team in their bid for a gold medal, although he noted that the move they made — replacing Leonard with Derrick White — was a necessary one.
“A decision was made. I think we were open and honest and understanding through it all. We have to do what's best for the team. We just felt that we had to pivot,” Hill said in a press conference on Wednesday, via Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. “We just felt that it was in our best interest but also in the Clippers and Kawhi's best interest to go in a different direction.”
"We just felt that we had to pivot… I think he wanted to be here… I applaud him for coming here and willing to sacrifice… Ultimately, it didn't work out."
Grant Hill on Kawhi Leonard's withdrawal from the Olympics.
(via @ScottAgness)pic.twitter.com/lrHe8rkKw7
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 11, 2024
In the end, Grant Hill appreciated that Kawhi Leonard still decided to give representing Team USA in the Olympics a go, but ultimately, Leonard wasn't 100 percent physically-speaking, preventing him from joining the team. Hill also knows what it's like to be in a similar position to the Clippers star after all the injury woes he endured in his Hall of Fame career.
” I think he wanted to be here. We don't take that lightly at all. Speaks to the program and the opportunity. Personally speaking, I know what it's like to want to do something and your body is just not right. I lived that personally. I applaud him for coming here and willing to sacrifice,” Hill added.
“We all tried. We gave it a valiant effort. Unfortunately, we have to move forward. … Ultimately, it didn't work out.”
Kawhi Leonard cannot escape his injury woes
The 2017 NBA playoffs continues to be a major sliding doors moment in the career of Kawhi Leonard. Leonard was ascending to top-five player status with the San Antonio Spurs, and he looked poised to give the historically-great 2017 Golden State Warriors a fight. However, we all know what happened: Zaza Pachulia impeded Leonard's landing space, causing the start of the Clippers star's inescapable injury problems.
The human leg is interconnected, and the injury Leonard suffered (a quadriceps tendinopathy) has caused his lower body to be more susceptible to injuries. With the exception of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, Leonard has either suffered a season-ending injury or missed the entirety of a season in every year since 2017.
Leonard's Clippers stint, in particular, has been an all-out nightmare on the injury front. He tore his ACL in the 2021 NBA playoffs in what looked like the Clippers' best-ever chance to win a championship, proceeded to miss the entire 2021-22 season because of it, and then saw his playoff life get cut short by unfortunate knee injuries — a torn meniscus in 2023 and persistent knee inflammation in 2024.
The 2023-24 season looked like it was going to provide a different story in Leonard's career. He played in 68 regular season games — the most he's suited up in since the 2016-17 season. But Leonard missed the final eight games of the Clippers' season and their first playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks. He then returned for Games 2 and 3, but it was evident that Leonard did look right at all.
It was actually a huge win for Team USA to get Leonard's services after the Clippers star's disheartening injury-shortened 2024 playoff run. But in the end, all parties erred on the side of caution amid Leonard's ongoing battles against his knee issues.
Derrick White replaces the Clippers star in Team USA's 2024 Paris Olympics roster
In the immediate aftermath of Kawhi Leonard's withdrawal from Team USA, the managing committee already had a replacement lined up in Boston Celtics guard Derrick White. White previously played for Team USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, although the less said about their seventh-place finish in that competition, the better.
White has emerged as one of the best guard defenders in the league, and he flourished as the Celtics' starting two-guard in their run to the 2024 NBA championship. He will fit in like a glove in Team USA's roster, as he is a low-ego, low-usage, floor-spacing defender who can be a part of any lineup head coach Steve Kerr cooks up.
