Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich recently addressed the Kawhi Leonard situation, via ESPN‘s Michael C. Wright:
“I only talk about the things that I know, and I know he’s worked hard to get back. It’s been frustrating. You don’t think he wants to come back? You don’t think we want him back? But the fact that he’s not back, it frustrates everybody for all the obvious reasons. But there’s no blame to be placed, on him or anybody else. It’s just an unfortunate situation. So what we do, what we think about, we’re going to do what we’ve been doing. The guys that are playing, that’s who the team is. And if he got added to the team, well that’s great. But you have to act like it’s not going to happen because you have to be who you are. And he’s not with us right now. So this team has to have its own identity. That seems pretty logical. That’s the only way to look at this.”
Leonard has missed all but nine games this season due to quadriceps tendinopathy.
As San Antonio fights for a playoff spot, the team apparently held a players-only meeting last week to implore Kawhi to return to action, according to multiple sources.
On Friday, veteran point guard Tony Parker told reporters that the quad injury he suffered was “100 times worse” than Leonard’s. Parker took eight months to come back.
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