San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich met with disgruntled star Kawhi Leonard in Southern California Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
This comes on the heels of Leonard reportedly asking for a trade – preferably to somewhere in Los Angeles – out of San Antonio.
Leonard played just nine games this past season, plagued by injury. A right quadriceps injury, that saw him miss the first 27 games of the season, ultimately flared back up and saw him miss almost the entire 2017-18 campaign, and was also the apparent catalyst of the rift that has formed between him and the Spurs organization.
Midway through last season, after rehabbing his injury, Leonard was cleared to play by the Spurs medical staff, but he insisted on a second opinion from his own doctors and ended up spending the all-star break consulting a specialist and rehabbing further.
This led to tensions between Leonard and his Spurs teammates, including veteran Tony Parker who publicly criticised Leonard about the entire rehab situation, calling a similar injury he went through “a hundred times worse.”
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne, Leonard is still very upset over Parker’s comments over how he chose to handle his injury and feels that Popovich and the rest of his Spurs teammates weren’t supportive enough of him.
The 26-year-old Leonard has been a two-time All-NBA First Team selection, was twice defensive player of the year and was Finals MVP in 2014.
The market for a player of his calibre will likely be immense. However, one thing to consider with Leonard is the fact that he’s eligible for a five-year, $219-million super-max contract extension with San Antonio, so there’s a lot of money he could be leaving on the table if he does indeed force his way out.
