Kawhi Leonard's Uncle Dennis Comments On Decision To Leave Spurs

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Kawhi Leonard
Leonard demanded a trade out of San Antonio after the mismanagement of his injury.

All of last season, Kawhi Leonard had a very public falling out with the San Antonio Spurs after he had a dispute with team doctors over his injury. Some felt like he should have been playing, although Leonard himself felt as though he simply wasn't ready to go. In the offseason, Leonard was shipped off to the Toronto Raptors and on Saturday, Leonard led the team to their first NBA Finals. Leonard's uncle, Dennis Robertson, has served as his advisor throughout his career and recently spoke to Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports about his struggled with the Spurs.

"I think it just became a lack of trust," Robertson said. "They didn’t believe Kawhi couldn’t play and that caused a lack of trust in us and then us not believing in them."

Robertson went on to say that the Spurs medical staff didn't want to believe that Kawhi was in significant pain and kept clearing him to play even though it was obvious that he wasn't ready. For "Uncle Dennis," Leonard is too much of a competitor to just stop playing because of an injury. He tried to fight through it but at the time, it simply wasn't an option.

"Any time a player says he’s not capable of playing, you should believe him," Robertson explained. "Why would Kawhi just stop playing all of a sudden? He’s a competitor. Sometimes you get these team doctors telling you what you can and cannot do, and Kawhi was just in too much pain to get out there. This was a serious issue. They didn’t believe him, and after that, the relationship couldn’t recover and we decided we had to move on."

Leonard and the Raptors will start the NBA Finals at home on Thursday against the Golden State Warriors.


About The Author
Alexander Cole is the current editor-in-chief of HotNewHipHop. He started at HotNewHipHop back in 2018 where he began as a Sports and Sneakers writer. It was here where he began to hone his craft, putting his journalism degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, to good use. Since that time, he has documented some of the biggest stories in the hip-hop world. From the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef to the disturbing allegations against Diddy, Alex has helped HotNewHipHop navigate large-scale stories as they happen. In 2021, he went to the Bahamas for the Big 3's Championship Game. It was here where he got to interview legendary figures like Ice Cube, Clyde Drexler, and Stephen Jackson. He has also interviewed other superstar athletes such as Antonio Brown, Damian Lillard, and Paul Pierce. This is in addition to conversations with social media provocateurs like Jake Paul, and younger respected artists like Kaycyy, Lil Tecca, and Jeleel!
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