Kawhi Leonard on new load management rules: ‘No league policy is helping me to play more games’
Excerpt:
“Before joining the Clippers in 2019, Leonard played 60 games with the Toronto Raptors in the 2018-19 regular season, never appearing in both games of a back-to-back. Leonard was playing through right quadriceps tendinopathy, a condition that shortened his final season with the San Antonio Spurs to only nine games in 2017-18. Leonard continued to be held out of at least one game of back-to-backs for his entire first season with the Clippers as well in 2019-20.
“When I was with the Raptors, it was different, I was coming from an injury,” Leonard said. “You have to know the details of a doctor. If the league is seeing or trying to mock what I did with the Raptors, then they should stop, because I was injured during that whole year.”’
by earlyearlgray
6 Comments
I’ve said this before, but Kawhi gave up his body and his future for the Raptors to win that championship. You could see if after each game in the playoffs, he was hurting after every play. He looked broken at times. This guy gave us everything he had left and I will love him for All My Life like K-Ci and Jojo.
“All my life, I prayed for someone like you…. and I thank god that I…that I finally found you.”
That lines up from what I’ve heard over the years. Basically Kawhi could barley even jump when he first got here and they used the season as his rehab
Kawhi legit limped his way to the finals and won us a ring.
This is why I hatea lot of modern sports discourse and hot take culture. Most fans and media are happy to strip away the human aspect, and simply clown and criticise athletes like Kawhi who may never be 100% healthy again and shorten their careers by at least trying to play through the pain when they can
These guys sacrifice their bodies and future quality of life for themselves and for us as well, but the lack of appreciation and respect for that is severely lacking.
Thank you for literally giving your body for the Raptors, Kawhi
And the warriors bandwagon kept saying their team was injured. They like to pretend that the Raptors were 100% but the truth is, they are all banged up. Kyle with his thumb, Kawhi, OG was out the whole playoffs when we could be used in place of Kawhi. Warriors stroll through the Western Conference, waiting for their next finals opponent well rested. Raptors had to go through games 6 and 7 plus overtime to get to the finals.