“I could see he was just fed up and tired,” said Gay.
SAN ANTONIO — Kawhi Leonard’s exit from the San Antonio Spurs is still surrounded with questions.
Why did he want out allegedly? What was the domino that pushed everything in motion?
But as the years pass since Leonard’s final moments in San Antonio, his former Spurs teammates are gradually expressing their thoughts on his exit.
Ex-Spur Rudy Gay joined Carmelo Anthony’s “7 pm in Brooklyn” podcast and the topic of Leonard’s time in San Antonio came up.
Gay played one season with Leonard in 2017-18. It would be Leonard’s final season, with him playing just nine games.
Gay explained it was “crazy” that season but ultimately opined that Leonard was fed up and tired.
“I caught the tail end of that but I could see he was just fed up and tired,” said Gay. “Man (Leonard) wanted something new, found it but it is one of the craziest situations that I’ve been a part of. That was the first time in a long time I’ve seen somebody just stand on it.”
Gay also said he felt Leaonrd just wanted a change of scenery and saw his actions as him empowering himself as a player.
This isn’t the first time one of Leoanrd’s former Spurs teammates come out publicly to discuss what happened in San Antonio.
LaMarcus Aldridge shared his thoughts with Showtime’s “All The Smoke Show” hosted by Matt Barnes and ex-Spur Stephen Jackson.
He believed Leonard just wanted to play basketball and not be immersed in coach Gregg Popovich’s real-world teachings.
“When somebody’s ready to go, they ready to go,” said Aldridge. “(Expletive) was going back and forth with them but we didn’t know what was going on.”
“I ain’t going to speak for nobody but he didn’t want to do all the other (expletive) that Pop did too. Like the learning. He just wants to hoop. Everybody don’t want to learn what’s in Africa. Learn the maps and he just wanted to hoop. I ain’t saying that’s right or wrong but he just didn’t want to do that.”
The Spurs traded Leonard (and Danny Green) to the Raptors in 2018 for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, and a protected 2019 first-round pick. Leonard would go on to win the NBA title with the Raptors in 2019.
What do you think, Spurs fans? Let us know on X at KENS 5 and JeffGSpursKENS5.
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