History of LA Clippers lying/ keeping fans in the dark about Kawhi Leonard’s injuries
2021 Playoffs : Listed with right knee sprain and were bluffing that he could return in a potential NBA FINALS, after season come out and say he tore his ACL and needs surgery
2021-2022: Bluffed that he could potentially return in the playoffs, was on a mins restriction to begin the following season 5 months later
2022-23: listed him as day to day for 12 missed games instead of just saying he had a set back in recovery
2022-23: gets pulled out of a game vs Memphis midway through & Ty Lue was visibly upset and had no clue what was going on
2022-23: Leaves game with “facial contusion” yet no mask was worn the next game or any visible hit to the face was shown vs New Orleans in a game I attended
2022-23: ruled out with right knee sprain after Game 2 vs Phoenix and acted like he could return in the series but come out and say he tore his meniscus after elimination
2024 Summer: Apparently pulled from Team USA when he was “good to go” yet isn’t ready to start training camp as a full participant & Lawrence Frank says the swelling has gone DOWN since then. So his knee was swollen more 2 months ago and you were gonna let him play full speed Olympic Games?
News comes out that he had a clean up procedure in his knee & is currently in recovery mode
by urfaselol
25 Comments
The team USA stuff was so weird. They acted like they had no idea why the team cut him.
🤷 Chronic, and/or degenerative conditions are hard to put a timetable on. Fans want clean, easy-to-understand timelines, but can’t accept that he may look good one week, then it flares up again on a plane trip or something.
2021 ACL – I don’t know that they knew immediately it was an ACL tear, but I don’t mind the gamesmanship in keeping the opponent guessing.
2021-2022 playoffs – Who knows? Maybe he could have been ready. Again, not a clean timetable on ACL return.
2022-2023 – 12 game day-to-day. He was day-to-day. If he was good on game 9, he would have played.
2022-2023 – “Pulled vs Memphis”. I have no recollection of this, but of course the coach is “visibly upset” when his best player can’t play.
2022-2023 – Give me a break. I’ve seen guys take off a face mask halfway through a quarter. Nothing here.
2022-2023 playoffs – Again, no idea if they immediately knew it was torn meniscus, but I don’t know what good it does anybody to announce it immediately.
2024 Olympics – I have plantar fasciitis – I can go a couple months without it bothering me, and then just sitting at a desk all day causes it to flair up, and I can barely walk for a few days. We saw footage of him in Team USA scrimmages and he looked fine. It’s very possible that in the time between then and now, the swelling went up, then back down.
Bottom line is – it’s very frustrating, but I don’t really know what the organization can do differently. Kawhi is a private guy, and it’s obvious he doesn’t like talking about his health, or having anyone else talk about it. Do you think Lawrence Frank should go against his max player’s wishes when it doesn’t help anyone?
Yeah, I remember almost all of these. I dunno what the point in not being transparent is.
He’s a hustler. I bet he finesses another fmvp on his next contract.
It’s not the clippers fault he doesn’t disclose injuries to them. He did the exact same shit to the spurs. There should be a clause that you must disclose all injuries at all times to your team even those coming from a 2nd opinion. The nba is a business. The players are investments. If the investment ain’t cooperating the business fails. Too many of these and the league is toast.
For 2021, I think he had a partially torn ACL, which is hard to diagnose. It’s a grade 2 ACL sprain and it’s possible to actually play through it and then get surgery. It isn’t recommended but keep in mind he didn’t get surgery immediately (took him at least a week).
In fact, during last season in Europe, Nikola Topic, the Thunder lottery pick this year, suffered a partially torn ACL and then came back and played with it. He unfortunately had his knee buckle again, which made him have the surgery (hence will miss his entire rookie year). It’s not really recommended these days but would like to point out it’s not impossible.
The legendary Thurman Thomas played his entire HOF NFL career with a partially torn ACL as a running back relying on cutbacks and getting hit repeatedly in his knee. He only retired once he suffered a complete tear at the end of his career.
I mean the player is the one who had history of not fully disclosing his injury status.
To be fair I feel like a lot of this was from Kawhi himself, not the team
All I expect from a player is:
1) They play at their highest level on the court, and
2) They work as hard as they can to stay/get healthy
Anyone who has watched Kawhi over his career can see he still fulfills number 1, and every account from coach and current/former teammate confirms the latter.
I’m tired, boss.
Eh all these gambling addicts pretending their parasocial attachment means they should get team doctor briefing before the season.
Nothing new. He did it with the Spurs
🤷🏻. In the end doesn’t really matter whether they are not truthful of the extent of his injuries. Either he plays or he doesn’t.
I used to think Kawhi was just a weirdo/diva but now I think him and his camp are just incredibly savvy business people. His knee has been toast for 3 years and he was able to sign another extension for an insane amount. If he was transparent with his medical history from the beginning he wouldn’t have got that extension. Imagine if Brandon Roy was able to squeeze 3 more years out of the blazers after his knee imploded. That’s more or less what Kawhi has done.
Color me shocked!
Why lie? We know what’s up. We bought a lemon.
I bet it’s because they don’t have any fucking clue. He has had documented major beef with both the spurs and clippers medical staff and you know he isn’t signing that contract without it.
The clippers have little to gain from constantly lying about his injuries, especially not this frequently. They have no fucking clue what’s going on so they do their best and are constantly wrong.
What I don’t get is who the fuck gets anything from this. Why is kawhi such a weirdo about his injuries that he basically keeps his teams and the media out
See it’s the fucking ambiguity that does it for me. Can’t wait to have kawhii off the team
They gotta sell tickets. They also can’t let the other teams make a plan as if they know Kawhi is not going to be on the floor. It’s just gamesmanship from an organization.
Spurs vindicated.
You’re criticizing the process because you hate the result
Clippers have been similarly secretive and deceitful with injuries even before Kawhi was a Clipper. It’s more surprising when they give a straightforward diagnosis with a an actual timeline for return.
They are the absolute kings of saying “re-evaluate in a few weeks” and then later “he actually had surgery already and is out for months”.
No doubt there. He is done in the NBA. He will attend the games only in street clothes until his contract expires and will disappear.
Clippers, highly functional franchise.
He has a clean up every year. Shocked that people always act shocked by it. Lot of athletes get clean ups before the season