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 ranking bear as a lot turbulence as he has. 2019 noticed him hit an unforgettable game-winner and grow to be the perfect participant on the earth by pressure 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 start out 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 property, it appears unimaginable that Leonard will lead this staff to the promised land his arrival — alongside Paul George — hinted is likely to be doable again in 2019. His legacy of two rings, two Finals MVPs and one among only a few people to truly 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 last act, his sterling resume might one way or the other 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 the perfect 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 an enormous threat together with his harm historical past and expiring contract, however Leonard one way or the other made it repay with the franchise’s first — and thus far, solely — title.
I solely bear 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 Next Chapter” in 2016, which created the best lineup of all time. After which on June 10, 2019, I used to be at my buddy Michael’s home when Kawhi Leonard — the perfect participant on the earth 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 had been all sleeping, Kawhi Leonard performed an ORCHESTRA!”
In the present day, that season appears like an excellent oasis in a desert of injury-ridden disasters, from his last few years on the Spurs ending in bitter disagreement over his harm rehabilitation to his current 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 completely 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 staff that developed amidst pre-existing staff success, and traded to a Toronto staff he didn’t essentially wish to be on, however nonetheless made essentially the most of it. His actual private choice was the Clippers transfer, with an ultimatum that if Los Angeles may purchase Paul George, he would play for them.
It was his “The Decision”; his “My Subsequent Chapter.” Leonard, James and Durant’s strikes got here in virtually precisely the identical context: the perfect participant on the earth creating an excellent staff 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 may 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 is going to keep. He has now signed over $400 million of contracts with the Clippers, who will virtually definitely find yourself remembering him as a harbinger of catastrophe, relatively than the savior he seemed to be.
None of that is about blame. Accidents are unimaginable to foretell, past understanding 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 the perfect comparability for his profession thus far; a spectacular solo ring and one other as a key contributor on a generational staff, however accidents and “what if?” will at all times be within the first sentence of any Walton dialog.
It will not be Leonard’s fault, however accidents have ruined what may have been one of many 5 biggest careers of this technology. If issues keep as they’re, it is going to make it unimaginable to have a look at his resume, which is undeniably unbelievable, with out additionally questioning what may have been. He’s nonetheless a Corridor of Famer, however his plaque in Springfield can 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 at all times be “what if?”
