1-I truly believe Kawhi had a legit reason to sit, he was injured.
2-Until the Spurs drafted Kyle, Kawhi was the younger player on the team for many years...I like this old article talking about how much he wanted to be a positive leader since 2016.
Esp last part "he quietly deferred during the early portion of his career to Duncan, Parker and Ginobili while waiting in the wings for his role to gradually increase."
http://www.espn.com/blog/san-antonio...ame-leadership
It's hard to think this was his team last season with two HOFers still there...
The good thing is that thing started to change, Kawhi kept in contact with his younger teammates all season and finally players could see a mentor in him.
The bad thing is that Parker/Manu aren't part of this relationship and all team was in a weird place after the "meeting"...having to support the locker room old leaders or Kawhi. Gasol opted to pick Manu/Parker side, Brandon and Danny still supported Kawhi in public.