San Antonio Spurs veteran Tony Parker offered some perspective in the never-ending saga of Kawhi Leonard's injury, but his comments which were originally meant to relate to his teammate's struggles, ended up sounding more like a testament to how different both players have treated a very similar injury.
“I’ve been through it. It was a rehab for me for eight months. Same kind of injury (as Kawhi), but mine was a hundred times worse,” said Parker, according to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “But the same kind of injury. You just stay positive.”
Parker suffered a full tear of his quad, which in reality is a lot worse than Leonard's quad tendinopathy injury, having to re-attach the ligament and strengthen it right from scratch, which he did during the offseason, coming back earlier than Leonard did on Nov. 27.
The Frenchman didn't stop there, as he also noted he didn't second-guess the organization's medical staff, following their instructions from step one to his impending recovery.
“I could have gone anywhere, but I trust my Spurs doctors. They have been with me my whole career,” added Parker. “They know my body better than anybody… I feel like we have the best medical team in the world.”
Leonard infamously sought several second opinions after the Spurs staff had cleared him for basketball activities, claiming he didn't feel he was quite ready for a return.
Parker noted he had options as well and could have gone to Europe to have the procedure, but purposely chose to deal with it in-house.
The 35-year-old wouldn't expand on the meeting the team had with Leonard, but agreed with his fellow veteran Manu Ginobili, not holding his breath for a Leonard return this season.
“Yeah, I kind of agree with Manu, but at the same time, I'm a big believer, so I still want to believe (Leonard will return this season),” Parker said. “But I agree with Manu, we have to have that approach.”
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