Spurs legend David Robinson unsuccessfully tried to get in touch with Kawhi Leonard prior to his trade to Toronto last week, and says the former NBA Finals MVP is a “hard guy to understand.”
Robinson is baffled by the deterioration of the relationship.
New story: David Robinson told @Rachel__Nichols on The Jump that his repeated attempts to reach Kawhi Leonard went unreturned before the trade https://t.co/qkN5nwTQku
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) July 23, 2018
The Hall of Fame center argues that San Antonio’s front-office and medical staff wouldn’t have put Leonard’s health at risk.
Per ESPN:
“He really, he’s a hard guy,” Robinson said Monday on ESPN’s The Jump with Rachel Nichols. “He’s just quiet. He doesn’t … I’ve reached out to him several times and just never hear anything back from him.
“I think the whole time he’s been here [in San Antonio], I’ve talked to him maybe a handful of times, and I can count on one hand how many words he’s really said to me. So he’s just a quiet guy, and I think that that’s made it difficult, I think, for all parties to really understand each other in this process.”
Robinson, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 after a 14-year career in San Antonio that featured two championships, 10 All-Star appearances and a regular-season MVP award in 1995, found it curious that the Spurs — who were among the early adopters to resting healthy players to save them for the long haul — would change course and force Leonard to play if they felt like it could harm him.
“I mean, it’s one of the oddest situations I think I’ve seen since I’ve been in pro basketball,” Robinson said. “He’s a hard guy to understand. He’s a hard guy to read.”
