Kawhi Leonard has finally moved on from San Antonio, but now that he’s gone more information keeps coming out about his conflict with the organization. Rachel Nichols of ESPN spoke with Spurs legend David Robinson about Leonard this week.
David Robinson tells me Kawhi Leonard’s departure from San Antonio is “one of the oddest situations I’ve seen since I’ve been in pro basketball.” He says he tried to reach out to Kawhi several times in recent months, but never got an answer back.
Robinson has been involved with the Spurs organization for years after his 13-year career with the team in the 90’s and early 2000’s. His scoring, rebounding, and competitive spirit cemented his place in basketball lore forever, and earned him the respect of players around the league. However, apparently this respect was not shown from the disgruntled Spurs’ star.
Kawhi Leonard had little-to-no contact with the Spurs’ organization throughout the conflict the two sides experienced this past season. It’s likely that Leonard viewed Robinson as an extention of the organization due to his strong ties with the front office and coach Gregg Popovich, and therefore viewed his attempted at mediating as nothing he wanted to be a part of. However, to completely ignore the attempts of negotiation between two respected players is quite shocking.
It was behavior like this that led San Antonio to eventually part ways with Leonard, sending him to the Toronto Raptors last week. Leonard initially rebuffed the idea of playing for Toronto, instead wanting to play in his home town of Los Angeles, however recent reports say Leonard is starting to like the idea of playing in Toronto.
With Leonard’s talent level, his services can take Toronto to a whole new level if he chooses to give his all to the organization. It should soon become clear whether he decides to give his all to Toronto or fall into the same problems he had with San Antonio last season.
