With each passing day, we move closer and closer to Kawhi Leonard not returning to the San Antonio Spurs this season. His path back from a lingering quad injury been one of the strangest storylines in the NBA this season, and while Gregg Popovich stressed that there isn’t a point of no return for San Antonio’s superstar, there doesn’t seem to be a resolution to Leonard’s situation any time soon.
One member of the Spurs’ roster has decided the best course of action is to just assume that Leonard’s season has come to a close. Manu Ginobili met with the media on Wednesday afternoon, a few hours before the team played host to the Washington Wizards.
As Ginobili tells it, the team believed the reports in the media about Leonard’s return being on the horizon. But after realizing that wasn’t going to be the case, he came to grips with the fact that he doesn’t think he’s going to see Leonard take the floor again this year.
Manu says his mindset toward Kawhi hasn't changed: "For me, he's not coming back, because (thinking he is) is not helping. We fell for it a week ago – again. I guess you guys (media) made us fall for it. But we have to think that he's not coming back. That we are who we are."
— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) March 21, 2018
The implication with those final few sentences is that most of the team shares Ginobili’s mindset on Leonard, but he didn’t say for sure. Regardless, with retirement rumblings perpetually looming around the Spurs’ legendary guard, it would be incredibly unfortunate if the Spurs were unable to make one (potentially) final playoff run for Ginobili if Leonard can’t play.
