Most devastating injury in San Antonio Spurs history: Kawhi Leonard
It’s funny what one dirty play can do. The 2016-17 San Antonio Spurs had everything going their way heading into the Western Conference Finals. They won 61 games, relatively breezed through their playoff matchups against the Memphis Grizzlies and the Houston Rockets. Their roster featured arguably the best two-way player of the game in Kawhi Leonard.
When the Spurs jumped out to a 20-point lead in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the seemingly unbeatable Warriors, San Antonio fans had good reason to believe that their team could do the unthinkable and upset the super team from Oakland.
That is until Zaza Pachulia decided to stick his big, goofy foot in Leonard’s landing spot while Leonard attempted a 3 early in the third quarter. This re-aggravated an earlier knee injury that Leonard suffered and it forced him to sit out for the remainder of the series.
With Leonard out of the picture, Golden State steamrolled over what was left of the Spurs to advance to the NBA Finals. But San Antonio’s problems were only just beginning.
The injuries Leonard sustained in the playoffs begot a season-long saga in which Leonard essentially sat out the whole season. This came about after Leonard visited with doctors not affiliated with the team for a second opinion on his quadriceps injury, despite the Spurs medical staff clearing him previously.
This led to a lot of finger-pointing and questioning the validity of Leonard’s injuries to the point where the relationship between Leonard and the team completely dissolved. The Spurs remained competitive without their star, but they were basically a chew toy for the Warriors in the first round of the 2018 playoffs.
Leonard has since been traded to the Toronto Raptors, who now look like a legitimate threat to represent the Eastern Conference in the 2019 NBA Finals. San Antonio continues to move forward as a solid playoff team, even without a superstar on the roster for the first time in a long time.