Tony Parker's comments on Kawhi Leonard's quad injury made the rounds quickly after the latter's prolonged absence started to irk some in the San Antonio Spurs' locker room.

Parker had suffered a full tear of his quadriceps, while Leonard had only partial damage to his, yet Parker was able to come back quicker and better than the 2014 Finals MVP.

Parker said his injury was “100 times worse” than Leonard, quickly igniting the flames of controversy and seen as a potential reason for Leonard's animosity toward the franchise.

“If people think that, then they're really wrong,” said Parker, addressing the situation publicly for the first time, according to ESPN's Michael C. Wright. “Because I'm definitely not the reason. I was saying that in a positive way. The sad thing is everybody ran with this and put me as the bad guy, and I had no problem playing with Kawhi.

“I loved playing with him. I'm kind of the one who passed him the torch because it was kind of my team between 2008 and 2015, and I passed the torch to him. So it was sad people tried to put me against Kawhi. It never happened like that. People like [former Spur] Danny Green and other people that knew Kawhi and could talk to them, I told them to tell him the real story.”

Parker was rather frank about his opinion at a trying time for the Spurs, but Leonard's issues with the franchise ran far deeper than just comments from his teammate.

Now a member of the Charlotte Hornets, Parker is far too removed from that situation to clear that situation with Leonard, but the two have likely moved on from that incident enough to make it not worth the while.