Kawhi Leonard is expected to miss “a period of weeks” due to swelling in his left knee, and Stephen A. Smith is not impressed.
The bombastic ESPN analyst took aim at the Toronto Raptors superstar in an epic five-minute-long rant on Tuesday, in which he called Leonard “the worst superstar in the history of sports.”
“Oh please,” Smith said when First Take co-host Shae Cornette noted that Leonard didn’t have a proper offseason due to the drama related to a stalled trade between the Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers. Smith said he wasn’t questioning the legitimacy of Leonard’s injuries, but he did question his preparation.
“This is the worst superstar in the history of sports,” Smith said. “He gets paid hundreds of millions of dollars. He is a veteran. He knows exactly what it takes to be ready. But he is the master at getting over. This man should give a master class, because I guarantee you, the cheque’s gonna clear… He gonna get his money.”
“What were you doing in the offseason to make sure you were ready for this upcoming season? You knew eventually you would get traded. You knew you were going to end up in Toronto because you dictated where you wanted to go. You knew all of this stuff. And yet here we are, we ain’t even two weeks in, and the brother [is] already getting time off. You can’t make it up. It’s unbelievable.”
Smith also pointed out the Aspiration endorsement deal scandal, in which Leonard allegedly didn’t need to show up in order to collect millions of dollars.
“After all of that, [he] left the damn country, because he’s playing for the Toronto Raptors,” Smith said. “He should give master classes on how to get paid without working. There has been no one better — no one better! — than Kawhi Leonard at getting paid for not working.”
“He gets paid, he works part-time, he does nothing promotionally to promote the team or the league, and he gets away like a bandit.”
Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images
Leonard has appeared in two games for the Raptors this season, both wins by Toronto. He put up 23 points in 24 minutes against the Chicago Bulls in the season opener, before tallying 16 points in 28 minutes against the Washington Wizards.
Leonard’s upcoming absence should allow him to miss the Raptors’ lone visit to Los Angeles. It now seems unlikely that he’ll play his old team, the Clippers, on Nov. 2.
Nobody should be surprised to see Leonard miss games. He has played over 70 games in a season just twice in his career, and in the last four years has averaged 55.5 games per season.
Load management was famously a successful strategy for Leonard during his first season in Toronto in 2018-19. Leonard appeared in just 60 games with the Raptors that season, but was healthy and effective for the entire playoff run.
If Kawhi can do that again, everyone associated with the Raptors will be pleased — no matter what Stephen A. says.
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