According to a new report, Kawhi Leonard’s San Antonio Spurs fate was sealed in his own mind as early as March.
It was during that time that teammate Tony Parker said that his quad injury was “a hundred times worse” than Leonard’s, though he had returned to action and Leonard hadn’t. At the time, many interpreted the remarks as a sort of challenge from one of the Spurs’ veteran leaders to their key player.
Leonard apparently didn’t take it as such. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said Friday that Parker’s comments were the “last straw” for Leonard, which fellow insider Zach Lowe corroborated.
Woj: The 'last straw' for Kawhi Leonard were Tony Parker's comments about Leonard's injury.
Lowe confirms he also heard the same thing. pic.twitter.com/G7qBYQT6ZJ
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) June 30, 2018
“The last straw for him, I was told, was when Tony Parker made those comments about ‘my quad injury was 100 times worse,'” Wojnarowski said. “And if you remember shortly after, Kawhi Leonard left San Antonio and he didn’t want to be a part of that media glare there and did not come back until the season was over with.”
We heard recently that Leonard remains “irate” over Parker’s comments. Perhaps the veteran guard thought he was doing the right thing by publicly challenging Leonard, but the opposite effect seems to have occurred, and Leonard wants out of San Antonio. That said, the fact that it was simply the “last straw” implies that Leonard’s issues with the team had been building for a while to a degree that we may not yet be aware of.
