Throughout entire ordeal between the San Antonio Spurs and All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard, there was much scrutiny placed on how the situation was handled. Much of this was directed at the manner in which Leonard proceeded through it all with his decision to not go public with his feelings at any moment prior to the trade to the Toronto Raptors, and it hasn't been helped by the fact that the All-Star has remained silent on the matter.
Longtime Danny Green spoke about the whole situation on his podcast (h/t to Sportsnet).
“I don’t think he messed up. There’s advantages and disadvantages; pros and cons. A lot of times if things are bad and you have nothing good to say or you don’t know what to say it’s better probably not to speak at all. But for him, I don’t think he messed up but he kind of left us, his teammates, to speak for him because he didn’t say anything. Could he have handled it differently? I wouldn’t say better but he could have probably made a statement or said something. It seems like everyone else is getting sources around him, which aren’t the true story and it kind of leaves everyone else to answer for him — the organization, the players, his teammates — when we really don’t know.
“He could have made it easier for everybody else if we would have said something but regardless we know that’s him. That’s his personality, we didn’t ask him to change, I didn’t expect anything different from him. He’s still maturing, he’s still a young adult, he’s still learning the game, still learning media. This will be something moving forward that he’ll adapt, adjust and learn from and make him a better person, player and media guy off the court.”
This sentiment was likely shared by several of his teammates concerning the situation, as Leonard didn't make the move to clear up the air on much of the speculation. Instead, he let the entire thing just play out over time and allowed the Spurs to find a feasible deal to move on from him.
It was clear that Leonard wasn't happy with how things unfolded with the quad injury that led to his teammates calling him out in the media and a decision to see a medical opinion away from the team. His silence didn't help with the entire ordeal, but it wasn't the primary cause for how things transpired the way they did.
It would be nice for Leonard to end his silence, but ultimately, this is a situation he can use as a learning experience moving forward in his NBA career.
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