The Los Angeles Clippers have been struggling in their recent efforts to contend for titles, and last year was a dream turned nightmare. A season that should have seen the Clippers as a surefire giant in the West with a starting lineup of dynamic hometown heroes instead became one riddled with injuries and underperformance.
Russell Westbrook and Paul George have since departed, joining the Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers, respectively. When Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue announced ahead of this season that small forward Kawhi Leonard would be sidelined for a significant amount of time due to injury management, many fans prepared for the worst.
In October, former Clippers strength and conditioning coach Randy Shelton filed a lawsuit against the organization, alleging it prioritized Leonard’s productivity over his recommended recovery time. The suit includes a timeline of Leonard’s tenure with the Clippers through 2024, dating back to the team’s eager recruitment immediately following the 2019 postseason where Leonard led the Toronto Raptors to a championship over the then-defending champion Golden State Warriors.
Leonard tore his right ACL in the 2021 Western Conference semifinals, undergoing required surgery in July 2021. He missed the entire 2021-22 season, and the Clippers management initially anticipated that a return would take place after 730 days.
Leonard was deemed healthy at the start of the 2022-23 season, but voiced his concerns about swelling and inflammation as soon as October 24. He was then sidelined for 12 games, only to return to the court on November 17 and rupture two ligaments in his right ankle on November 21. After missing an additional six games, Leonard continued to rehab and ultimately appeared with the Clippers in the postseason—where he would tear his right meniscus.
Leonard played 68 games in the 2023-24 season, averaging 23.7 points and receiving his sixth All Star nomination. As for this season, the 33-year-old forward debuted on January 4, just over a month before the All-Star break. On January 15, the Clippers blew out the Nets 126-67: the largest margin of victory in franchise history. Leonard put up a team-high 23 points in the record-breaking night for the Clippers.
Despite Leonard’s promising return, the impressive backcourt efforts of James Harden and Norman Powell and the team’s current fifth-place standing in the Western Conference, telenovela-level drama across the league in the first half of the season dominates the narrative.
Reports regularly come out about players like Steph Curry and Tyrese Maxey privately checking their teammates for not taking their commitment to winning—and to each other—seriously enough.
While this has not been the case for Leonard and the tangible chemistry in Los Angeles, the callousness towards him from both analysts and fans remains par for the course.
The Palisades fire that destroyed more than 24,000 acres of land and subjected more than 150,000 residents to evacuation orders was devastating to greater LA. On January 8, Lue announced Leonard stepped away from the team to be with his family who had to evacuate and relocate shortly before the NBA announced nine games would be rescheduled due to the wildfires out West and the icy weather conditions in Atlanta.
At first, the news of Leonard’s time away was met with disdain by fans, and the general attitude toward the wildfire’s impact on the league did not shift to measurable concern until head coaches JJ Redick and Steve Kerr lost their homes.
By the time fans began to develop more sympathetic responses on social media, Leonard was already back with the team. “As we know,” Leonard replied to a reporter asking if his family and community were ‘okay,’ “everybody is not okay.”
It seems Leonard has only consistently received public support from his former and current teammates this season. For example, James Harden, not one to shy away from making his feelings known—Daryl Morey, I’m looking at you—shared words of encouragement toward Leonard and charged himself and his teammates to “try to make [Kawhi’s] job a lot easier.”
Further, retired Clippers legend Lou Williams defended his former teammate in October after pundit Kendrick Perkins suggested Leonard should strongly consider retiring, arguing it was ultimately up to Leonard to decide when it’s time to step away from the game for good.
Leonard has not publicly entertained retirement discussions, insisting he “still has a lot more basketball to play” and is pleased with his progress.
It’s telling that his peers have demonstrable respect for him, and Leonard still shows prowess in his midrange game in addition to his effective ball-sharing and positioning, though the general consensus among fans still bears little patience.
Patience is more than merited in this case—Leonard is not the one who erred in deciding the Clippers’ chances of winning were more important than his health and longevity.
Following the Clippers’ 109-98 win over the Heat on January 13, a reporter asked if there was “something he couldn’t do” that he was normally able to do in the past, to which Leonard repeated the question and concluded “no.”
Kawhi Leonard is determined to help the Clippers get it right this time, and fans should give him the chance to prove it by retiring tired narratives about his so-called history of excuse making.
