Clippers Players Reportedly Not a Fan of Kawhi’s Load Management, Preferential Treatment

Kawhi Leonard is quite the prima donna. And his former teammates recognized that pretty quickly, and they were definitely not feeling it. According to The Athletic’s Jovan Buha and Joe Vardon, some players on the team “bristled” at what can be viewed as preferential treatment given to star free-agent signing Kawhi Leonard.

Via The Athletic:  

“In Los Angeles, there is an unquestioned, A-1 superstar in Leonard. His presence both instantly made the Clippers a title contender and also eventually ruffled the feathers of some teammates because of the preferential treatment showed to him from top to bottom.

Players like Beverley, Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams — Clippers bedrocks before the arrival of Leonard and George — bristled when Leonard was permitted to take games off to manage his body and to live in San Diego, which often led to him being late for team flights, league sources said.”

There were reportedly a lot of tension inside the Clippers’ locker room throughout the season. It came to a head when the team blew a 3-1 series lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals.

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Leonard wasn’t alone in reportedly earning the ire of his teammates. Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium also reported in September that a number of Clippers “had verbal spats with George throughout the postseason, citing in their exchanges a lack of accountability from him.”

Charania added:

“In the postgame locker room Tuesday night, George was preaching to teammates to remain committed, for all the players to return to the team this offseason and stay ready to make another run. It was met by some eye rolls and bewilderment, sources said, because George did not back up his words with action in the series and the team has multiple free agents with decisions to make.”

Now Doc leaving makes complete sense. He wasn’t in control of the players, it was clearly the other way around.  Tyronn Lue has a lot of work to do.

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