Has there ever been a profession like Kawhi Leonard’s?
No participant this century has embodied the best highs and lowest lows of superstardom, or seen the peaks and valleys of their public approval score bear as a lot turbulence as he has. 2019 noticed him hit an unforgettable game-winner and turn into one of the best participant on this planet by power of will. And never 5 years later, he has gone from one of many league’s most vaunted winners to a participant identified extra for injury-laden flameouts and disappointment on undoubtedly the NBA’s most cursed franchise.
Thursday noticed Leonard declared out indefinitely to begin the 2024-25 season, writing one other merciless chapter in his e book of missed alternatives. With the Los Angeles Clippers gutted of expertise and bereft of future belongings, it appears not possible that Leonard will lead this crew to the promised land his arrival — alongside Paul George — hinted is perhaps doable again in 2019. His legacy of two rings, two Finals MVPs and one among only a few people to really maintain the best-player-alive belt now appears overshadowed by an incalculable string of accidents and failures. And if the 33-year-old doesn’t mastermind a triumphant remaining act, his sterling resume could someway go down as a tragedy.
Leonard’s 2019 season was a non secular expertise. In a world with LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant all tearing the league to shreds, Leonard simply went and declared himself one of the best participant within the NBA with out asking anybody for permission. He was dominant, damaging, and seemingly got here out of nowhere. The Toronto Raptors took a large threat along with his harm historical past and expiring contract, however Leonard someway made it repay with the franchise’s first — and to date, solely — title.
I solely keep in mind the place I used to be for 2 free agent choices ever: I used to be sitting on my porch in New Hampshire when Kevin Durant posted “My Subsequent Chapter” in 2016, which created the best lineup of all time. After which on June 10, 2019, I used to be at my pal Michael’s home when Kawhi Leonard — one of the best participant on this planet on the time — selected the Los Angeles Clippers, and introduced Paul George together with him. I can nonetheless hear Chris Vernon on the emergency episode of The Mismatch, saying “Whereas we have been all sleeping, Kawhi Leonard performed an ORCHESTRA!”
At present, that season appears like an excellent oasis in a desert of injury-ridden disasters, from his remaining few years on the Spurs ending in bitter disagreement over his harm rehabilitation to his latest half-decade of underwhelming in Los Angeles. It will be simple to argue that his 2014 and 2019 rings and Finals MVPs vindicate all of this, with best-player-on-a-championship-team often being all it takes to cement a profession as “full.”
However I’d argue that’s not the case. Leonard has now been a superstar-level participant for a decade on three totally different groups, however his most personally orchestrated act — the Clippers homecoming — has been mired in failure and accidents. He was drafted by a legendary Spurs crew that developed amidst pre-existing crew success, and traded to a Toronto crew he didn’t essentially wish to be on, however nonetheless made essentially the most of it. His actual private determination was the Clippers transfer, with an ultimatum that if Los Angeles might purchase Paul George, he would play for them.
It was his “The Determination”; his “My Subsequent Chapter.” Leonard, James and Durant’s strikes got here in virtually precisely the identical context: one of the best participant on this planet creating a brilliant crew to presumably run the league for the foreseeable future. However James and Durant’s strikes yielded two rings every. Leonard’s has been an injury-riddled hell.
I’d argue that is the defining interval of his profession, not San Antonio or Toronto, and will thus be the primary sentence of his legacy. His championships can’t completely wash out the bitter style of the final 5 years, and save for some unexpected heroics, that’s sadly the way in which it’s going to keep. He has now signed over $400 million of contracts with the Clippers, who will virtually actually find yourself remembering him as a harbinger of catastrophe, quite than the savior he gave the impression to be.
None of that is about blame. Accidents are not possible to foretell, past figuring out sure gamers are injury-prone. After 2019, Leonard in all probability ought to have been within the dialog with Durant and James in a triumvirate of forwards for his or her technology. However his lower-body prevented that legacy, very similar to it did for Invoice Walton, maybe one of the best comparability for his profession to date; a spectacular solo ring and one other as a key contributor on a generational crew, however accidents and “what if?” will all the time be within the first sentence of any Walton dialog.
It will not be Leonard’s fault, however accidents have ruined what might have been one of many 5 best careers of this technology. If issues keep as they’re, it’s going to make it not possible to have a look at his resume, which is undeniably unimaginable, with out additionally questioning what might have been. He’s nonetheless a Corridor of Famer, however his plaque in Springfield can now not be solely outlined by the rings that obtained it made. And with this newest nebulous setback, the one certainty round Leonard’s future is that the primary sentence on that profession epitaph will now all the time be “what if?”
