“We can say as of today they (Spurs) were wrong,” said former NBA player Gilbert Arenas.
SAN ANTONIO — Ex-San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard’s pro-career has been plagued by injuries.
Whether in San Antonio, Toronto, or in Los Angeles with the Clippers, Leonard has yet to be reliable to suit up and consistently help his teams win games.
With the Spurs, it started in 2017 with an ankle injury (caused by an undercut by Zaza Pachulia), which caused him to miss the end of the playoffs against the Warriors.
In the 2017-2018 season, he suffered from Quadriceps Tendinopathy, which resulted in him playing only nine games during that season. This ultimately led to friction with the team (team doctors versus his camp’s beliefs) and his eventual trade from the Spurs to the Raptors.
And it is because of these early injuries with the Spurs at the start of his career that former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas believes the blame falls entirely on San Antonio.
“Whatever happened at the Spurs, they should just erase that,” he said. “Obviously if he is still affected today, that means what was going on as a San Antonio Spur, you got to side with Kawhi now. He wasn’t ready, right?”
Said Arenas: “Obviously, he knew something was wrong, and what they were saying with the medical staff with the Spurs, we can say as of today they (Spurs) were (expletive) wrong.”
The issue began in the summer of 2017, when the Spurs’ medical staff diagnosed Leonard with quadriceps tendinopathy—a degenerative tendon condition involving stages of tendon thickening, disorganization, and potential cell death if overloaded.
The diagnosis suggested the chronic quadriceps injury issue required careful management.
Leonard’s camp, however, believed the injury stemmed from repeated contusions (bruises) that led to ossification (bone-like hardening) and muscle atrophy, prompting his camp to seek medical opinions outside the franchise.
Some believe it was the Spurs who should never have publicly announced he was medically cleared, which made it seem as though his continued absence was by choice, thus leading to mistrust.
However, after his time in San Antonio was over, he continued to deal with injuries, leading to missing chunks of the season, either with the Raptors or now the Clippers.
He missed 22 Toronto regular-season games for load management and developed compensatory left knee patellar tendinopathy from favoring his right leg. With the Clippers, he has played in 628 out of 948 career games through 2023, dealing with frequent knee inflammation, torn ligaments, and indefinite absences.
Were the Spurs vindicated?
Perhaps they were but the Spurs were essentially correct in their medical diagnosis of their former star, and the conservative approach to treating him was the right one.