A year ago, Kawhi Leonard was a member of the San Antonio Spurs and was coming off of a season in which he played just nine games due to a mysterious quad injury that had Spurs coaches, players, executives, doctors and fans baffled.

Team doctors felt there was nothing wrong with Leonard and cleared him to play, and head coach Gregg Popovich took rather consistent pot shots at Leonard through the media for choosing to sit out.

Spurs players even organized a team meeting in which they poked and prodded Leonard about his status, asking him why he was not back on the floor.

All of the tension ultimately resulted in a disgruntled Leonard asking for a trade, as he simply did not trust San Antonio's organization any longer.

The Spurs then ended up trading him to the Toronto Raptors, where he is now competing against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

Kawhi Leonard

To this day, people have criticized Leonard for electing to sit out just about all of the 2017-18 campaign, with his detractors calling him selfish and questioning his desire.

Does that sound familiar?

Going into these NBA Finals, Warriors superstar Kevin Durant was nursing a calf injury that he sustained during Golden State's second-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets.

With Durant missing the first four games of the finals, he began to hear the same criticisms Leonard heard a year ago. Selfish, soft and gutless were all terms people used to describeDurant, questioning why Klay Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Iguodala and Kevon Looney could play through injuries while Durant sat out.

Durant ended up returning in Game 5 on Monday night, and after a brilliant first quarter in which he scored 11 points, he suffered an injury that is believed to be a torn Achilles, an injury that could wreck the remainder of his NBA career.

Seeing Kevin Durant go down the way he did on Monday evening has to put things into perspective for those same people who lambasted Leonard for refusing to play all of last year. Well, sane people, anyway.

Just imagine if Leonard gave into the pressure and decided to come back last season. What if he re-injured his quad? What if he compensated and ended up suffering a knee injury?

Durant's devastating injury in Game 5 further exemplified why Leonard was entirely justified in sitting out, regardless of what Popovich, the media or the fans felt.

kevin durant

It's easy to sit back and get on someone's case when we truly have no idea what they are feeling or what they are thinking. Obviously, Leonard was prioritizing his future, and the fact that many could not comprehend that is mind-boggling.

This is not just a game to these guys. This is their livelihood, and it would be ridiculous for them to put the desires of their teammates or the fans ahead of what they believe is best for themselves.

Leonard didn't care that the whole world was roasting him. He didn't care that he didn't really have anyone in his corner. He saw his future and he understood that resting was the best course of action for himself, the thoughts of everyone else be damned.

What Kevin Durant experienced on Monday evening should serve as a sobering reality to anyone who views professional athletes as robots rather than human beings, and it absolutely vindicates Leonard in his decision last season.

As if Leonard needed any vindication, anyway.