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The Kawhi Leonard saga does not look like it’s anywhere close to reaching its conclusion despite the basketball public’s growing frustration. For now, the only thing that’s close to being certain is that trying to rehabilitate his damaged relationship with the San Antonio Spurs is a practice in futility.
Both sides are to blame for the way the issue has unraveled and escalated to a toxic point. To further illustrate how irreversible the situation is in terms of repairing Leonard’s rapport with the Spurs, during a recent episode of the Back to Back podcast, ESPN’s Michael C. Wright told a nearly comical story about how Leonard’s people once tried to literally hide the forward from the Spurs (h/t Kurt Helin of NBC Sports).
“There was a point during [Kawhi’s] rehab process in New York that some of the Spurs brass went out to see him in New York,” Wright said. “As soon as those guys arrived to the building, Kawhi’s people grabbed him and sequestered him to another part of the building. And so the Spurs’ people couldn’t even see him.”
It’s clear that Kawhi Leonard wants out of San Antonio, but the Spurs are not just going to give him up that easily, as they continue to find a trade partner who could give them the best offer. Leonard reportedly wanted to get dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers but is now singing a different tune, as he now seemingly prefers the LA Clippers. The problem is, the Clippers do not have what the Spurs want in return.
Leonard’s silence is not helping provide clarity of what it exactly is that he wants, and physically hiding from the Spurs only adds to the intrigue of his compelling offseason.