One of the more peculiar elements of the Kawhi Leonard saga in San Antonio has been that no one seems to know just how bad things got in the relationship between the two sides. We know that Leonard rehabbed from his quad injury in New York for a bit, and we know that Spurs GM R.C. Buford is open about wanting to fix their relationship and bring Leonard back, but for the most part, all indications are this was as weird of a saga as we’ve seen in the NBA.
The latest example of this came via ESPN’s Mike Wright during an appearance on the Back To Back podcast. Wright was prompted by Tom Haberstroh of Bleacher Report to discuss what’s gone down between the two sides, which led to him telling a story revolving around Leonard’s rehab.
Namely, Wright explained that the Spurs went to visit Leonard in New York, at which point his people took steps to hide him in another part of the building they were in. Seriously.
ESPN Spurs reporter @mikecwright bottled up a lot of wild Kawhi/Spurs stories. But he did share this one anecdote on @back2backpod:
The time Kawhi’s people tried to hide Kawhi from Spurs staffers in NYC
Full episode here: https://t.co/7sJsB8wAN4 pic.twitter.com/aVsrisQbab
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) July 5, 2018
“Some of the Spurs brass went out to see him in New York,” Wright said. “As soon as those guys arrived to the building, Kawhi’s people grabbed him and sequestered him to another part of the building so the Spurs people couldn’t even see him. These are the types of things that are going on that people don’t necessarily know about.”
The story itself is completely nuts, as is the implication Wright puts forth that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Assuming Leonard’s time in San Antonio is over and we’re all just counting down the days, the eventual tell all of this last year is going to be remarkable.
