[Smith] “This is twice that the Clippers haven’t been up front about Kawhi Leonard and an injury. You can call it gamesmanship, but it’s also dishonest in a time where the injury reports, both short- and long-term, mean more than ever.”
This is twice that the Clippers haven't been up front about Kawhi Leonard and an injury. You can call it gamesmanship, but it's also dishonest in a time where the injury reports, both short- and long-term, mean more than ever.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) April 26, 2023
by BigButter7
30 Comments
If the NBA wasn’t in bed with gambling, this would just be annoying/inconvenient to the fans, but it would be just another instance of playoff gamesmanship with the IRs.
Because *they are* in the gambling business, this is a potentially **huge** issue.
A Clippers organization is full of clowns. Their fans deserve much better than this.
I mean all the fans probably didn’t believe this bs after they kept saying day to day or questionable even after his torn acl 2 years ago.
Just be transparent and don’t give anyone a false hope
If what the clippers did isn’t a problem, then the league doesn’t care.
Kawhi has to be the most mysterious athlete in history
If the Clippers can get away with hiding a timetable on their star player, while in the middle of a playoff series, why wouldn’t they? Like why let the Suns know they don’t have to prepare anything for him. If you can get anything out of it, by making them spend time watching film that will not matter, why wouldn’t you?
People everywhere were saying he was done for the season as soon as news of the injury dropped. Even after Clippers said “back in 2 games” a ton of people instantly called cap. If you haven’t learned after all these years you’re a fool.
In other words he wants to know how his parlay is looking. Who gives a shit? The rules are crystal clear on when they need to report who is playing.
Guarantee this isn’t an organizational decision, but a decision from Kawhi/his camp. Kawhi’s team probably handles injuries and communication to the org very similarly to how Lebron’s team does (and probably a lot of the superstar players out there).
It’s pretty likely very few people (probably just the GM and president of bball ops) from the Clippers org knew the full extent of this injury and Kawhi’s team was telling the greater organization that it was a sprained knee, so the team would only report what they know.
Lol what I’m wondering is who was even falling for that bs?
We all know any injury regarding Kawhi and coupled with his cautionary attitude should have long been a conclusion in our minds that he wasn’t coming back
The hopium was crazy
Oh no poor gamblers. I’m sure they were all banking on Kawhi playing.
Considering this’d affect gambling odds i’m kinda surprised the NBA isn’t harder on teams for shit like this
Lol, gamblers get fucked
They didn’t lie. It’s a sprain. Just like Paul George’s pcl tear is a sprain too.
Media guy upset team doesn’t give media information. Up next: sun rises in east
Mean “more than ever” for who?
Fans who are buying tickets know the man just injured his knee. You’re already know there’s a risk of him not playing.
We talking the other team? Lol, why would the Clippers lay all their cards out on the table?
Or are we talking about people gambling? Is that what Keith means by “more than ever”? Because they can get rightfully fucked.
The moment I read ‘right knee sprain’ as the reason for him missing game 3, I assumed there was a good chance he was done for the playoffs. If he came back, cool.. but it’s easy to not set false expectations. Just don’t do it.
It’s a slight bummer for fans, who get hopes up and might buy tickets to only be disappointed.
It’s a slight bummer for the opposing team, who might have to game plan against the “what if.”
It’s a huge bummer to the gambling world, as it’s misleading and skews odds… So expect a rules change next year.
What a dumb take. Team have been coy about injury return since as long as I’ve been watching the NBA and MJ was still playing when I started watching.
This is such a crybaby take
I mean its not even close to being as egregious as portland hiding injury report, playing an injured player right before trading him away. The gamblers will have to learn to cope with this
Who gives a shit? Everybody knew he was done for the season because of course he was. He’s Kawhi and he’s a Clipper. What other outcome could it have been?
“I’m trying to gamble on these games, and they keep messing with me!”
Clippers withholding the injury should be a complete non-story but here we fucking are.
“mean more than ever” holy shit stfu trying to create drama where there is none. Nobody gives a shit.
Gambling is bad for sport
Won’t somebody please think of the gamblers?!
I think they should go the other way: get rid of the injury report entirely.
The degenerate gamblers need to know!
With a torn meniscus it can really depend on the severity. I think you have to wait until swelling goes down to diagnose as well. I tore a meniscus and then played the rest of the game. I possibly could’ve played w heavy bandaging/bracing if I have to play the rest of a college tournament. If I made Kawhi money I probably wouldn’t play on it. Sometimes you’re in bed for 3 days not walking, and then you play. Maybe I’m off but this doesn’t feel dishonest.
Yeah, I don’t really give a fuck if people who gamble lose money.