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Sad you still watch this, and feel such a need to respond.... keep it up
Sad you still watch this, and feel such a need to respond.... keep it up
Most team doctors are okay with second opinions, and will actually encourage it in difficult cases like Kawhi's.
There's plenty of evidence that he's dealing with the same injury (same leg, same lack of explosion, same limp), and no evidence that there was a misdiagnosis. Kawhi's team never released whatever injury those doctors in NY found, probably because it would just corroborate what the SA team doctors said.
https://www.poundingtherock.com/2018...eonard-healthy
the only blame you can put on patfo for this ordeal is signing patty and gasol
Some of you are just bitter... holding a grudge won't bring him back, tbh...
This isn't about believing Leonard or Uncle, it's about team doctors that apparently were deeply involved in the acrimony that followed. To the point of contradicting your franchise player when he told them he couldn't play, and officially clearing him to play instead. Even if the doctors thought they were right, he's your franchise, you have to deal with those situations with proper care. Not to mention the kind of message that sends to other top tier athletes in the league. Who do you guys think has more credibility right at this moment? The healthy guy busting his ass on the NBA finals or the has been Spurs doctors?
At the end of the day, it cost the Spurs a franchise player, one of the best players in the league, the possibility of being a top tier team in the near future, and all the money and talent magnet that surrounds that.
A lot, and I mean a whole lot of people would've been fired in any other organization for a situation that worked out that way.
Healthy guy? You mean the guy who skipped 1/4 of the season, and is dragging his leg up and down the court? That guy?
So basically your saying PATFO should have kissed his ass and not forced the issue? MAYBE, that prolongs the inevitable, but I doubt it makes a difference
PREACH
This will always be a massive blemish on the Spurs FO
Just like him not wanting to sit with the team. It was already over at that point anyways as well. Spurs were just in denial trying to hold on to him when his mind was already made up.
This is a good theory.
Trade looking more and more awful by the second
It was Kawhi and his camp that cut communication. It was Kawhi and his camp that kept saying he was coming back and then ghosting the team when the dates came up. When the Spurs finally declared him out for the season(no communication from Kawhi & co for months), of course his team comes back and says he's 95% and will come back "soon".
Apparently 95% wasn't enough to even sit court side and support is team during the playoffs.
PAFTO were playing against a rigged deck, I don't see how it isn't clear to anyone remotely familiar with the situation.
Just watch the player play the game. He does not play back to back games all season. He still has the body language of a less than 100% healthy player.
Can anyone say even now that he looks fully healthy when he plays? Something is still not right.
No need to make excuses for PATFO, tbh.... this is the same group that called DRob in the middle of the night to tell him they thought Duncan was gone.
The Spurs have been isolated from the cutthroat business that's the NBA for a long time, largely thanks to the big 3, and we knew the transition was not going to be easy. Maybe Pop is not interested in sucking up to the league stars like the rest of the teams are, tbh, but then we have no room to complain about mediocrity...
PATFO lost Kawhi. Bottom line. Uncle this, Dennis that, blah blah blah. Did Kawhi out? Yes he did. But PATFO are the franchise that alienated a top 3 player so much that he didn’t even want to be in their presence. It happened on their watch.
None of this “Spurs way, Spurs guys, culture contracts” is ever going to end until Pop retires into the sunset, not the into front office. Pop plays humble, but he has become bigger than the team and that’s a problem.
I root for the San Antonio Spurs, not the San Antonio Pops. Dude needs to retire already.
What you wrote there is not correct. It's impossible. A few points.
Although called "Spurs doctors" the ones who treated Kawhi were his doctors, Kawhi's doctors. Period. Not arguable.
He was the patient. They were his doctors. The doctor-patient relationship existed between them and Kawhi. There are ethics rules about the doctor-patient relationship, and there are state and federal laws about it. And I am certain that none of the doctors wanted to lose his license to practice medicine. Those ethics rules, and laws, are serious. They mean what they say. They ain't no joke. All the doctors know it.
The doctors informed Kawhi of their medical findings and recommendations. He was their patient.
They informed nobody else - unless they had the proper consent form, duly signed by Kawhi and on file. Although called "Spurs doctors" they never said a word to the Spurs - UNLESS they were authorized, by Kawhi himself, by his written consent, to communicate with the Spurs about his medical condition.
You can be absolutely certain of that because you can be certain they didn't want to lose their licenses. The doctor-patient relationship is privileged, protected by law.
I would guess that the "Spurs doctors" do have consent forms on file from any Spurs players they treat. It would be in a player's best interest if his condition can be communicated to the training staff, so they can assist him in following a doctor's recommendations. Also, the coaching staff.
The patient, himself, can say whatever he wants to say about his medical condition, to anybody at any time. All his medical information belongs to him because his body belongs to him. He doesn't need permission.
The doctors never told the Spurs (if authorized to speak to them) anything different from what they told Kawhi, himself. You can take it to the bank. Because they didn't want to lose their licenses. There are ethics rules, and laws, and doctors know it.
The kind of contradiction you mentioned is impossible. It never happened. It's a misunderstanding among the public.
Who told Coach Pop, that December, that the doctors said Kawhi was "cleared to play?" Kawhi did. It was Kawhi, himself, who told Pop. After the doctors told Kawhi. Even if Pop might have heard it earlier from the training staff, if authorized by a consent form, Pop would have verified it with Leonard personally, of course, by asking what the doctors told him.
Coach Pop then added Leonard to the lineup for the Spurs game on December 12 against the Mavericks.
This is not correct at all, and shows a complete lack of understanding how NBA contracts operate. When the player signs on an NBA contract, he waives a number of rights, including the secrecy rule. He also must submit to team doctors for periodic fitness assessments. Those doctors report directly to the team and league.
In cases where the team and player disagree about his fitness to play, there's a Fitness to Play Panel that can be established per the CBA (see Larry Coon's CBA faq, entry #62). They include doctors from the league and player's association. The problem with going that route is that if the league clears him, and the team still doesn't play him, then the team has 60 days to trade or waive him, a route the Spurs were unlikely to take since they apparently still wanted to repair their relationship with Kawhi.
Even when players receive care from a personal doctor, the team doctors still have to clear the player. If a disagreement arises from that, the same Fitness Panel procedure kicks in.
Even if all this were true and he wasn't faking it for a good portion of time and using it as a crutch to ask out, none of it excuses his behavior.
That was always my main point of contention. Of course I'd have still been annoyed had he wanted out just because he supposedly wanted to live in L.A. year round, but that's because he's a superstar, one that required a lot of player development and they'd be missing out on most of his best years.
Ultimately, I'd have been more or less fine with it though, so long as he handled it like a professional (didn't have a problem with Aldridge asking out 2 years ago or supposedly wanting to finish where he started; though I don't know why he allowed it to become public knowledge), didn't destroy his trade value and allowed them to cash in.
Instead, he contributed to destroying this franchise.
Imagine how much worse it will look in 100 years. Just ghastly.
El Nono is probably that guy who blames the victims of crimes. “She shouldn’t have been dressed that way”. “Ultimately why was he out that late? He put himself in that situation and he should have just not been out so late”.
What is rich about this example (DROB) is that on one hand you are knocking PATFO and saying they didn’t do what it took to keep a superstar the on the other hand you reference them doing what they needed to do (calling in DROB) to keep Tim. Seems like a little bit of double speak unless you meant to give credit to PATFO for calling Rob?
Thank gawd well all be in heaven
Of course it was made and unprofessional. I have no sympathy for the guy, and reminds me when Melo wanted out of Denver back in the day because he wanted to play in New York.
The point is that the Spurs aren't riding a high horse anymore, and in this league, the 'norm' is that you have to suck up to the stars, especially if you're on a small market. You have to guarantee minutes, touches, etc. I also don't think it sounds entirely hollow that there was disagreement and lack of trust between Kawhi and some people in the team, something MoSpur and apparently timvp also mention, so then the question is, what happened with those people? Is something gonna be done about it, or we're stuck with these characters?
I actually think it's fairly alarming that if left to their own capacity, they would've lost basically 4 championship rings and all the money and history that came with it. Maybe San Antonio is a tough sell, but that's partly the point too. When you have guys like that fall into your lap, or you have the advantage of having brought them in, won a championship with the team, you would think there would be some care in handling situations like these, instead of having the coach talk how that player is not a leader, or an iconic player coming out and talking about Kawhi's injury like it was no big deal.
I'm also intrigued about the comments on acrimony between Kawhi and his camp and some people in the organization. Apparently we can't know who that people are, but what happened to them?
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