Kawhi Leonard speaks for first time since Team USA departure

The star talked at Clippers media day on Monday.

(Photo credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images)

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Kawhi Leonard’s departure from Team USA camp in July raised more questions than answers. On Monday, at media day for the LA Clippers, Leonard spoke for the first time about what transpired.

“I thanked them for the opportunity,” Leonard said of Team USA and the experience. “Things came out of nowhere, was out of my control, and that’s all I could do. I’m glad they was able to get the gold medal.”

Leonard, who is set to miss some of the physical portion of training camp due to recovery from right knee inflammation that plagued the star throughout the final weeks of the regular season and well into the postseason, would also say that he feels in a better place today with his injury than he did when he had to leave USA camp.

“Just trying to maintain it and figure it out,” Leonard said when asked what he’s learned over the last few months with the ailment.

“We’ll be in here for a long time if I started describing stuff and people start not knowing different names,” Leonard quipped. “But just learning how it came and how to keep it down and make sure that we don’t fall in that timeframe of [missing] those important moments and just making sure I’m healthy. There’s some stuff that we could do or try to do to make me last, so we’ll see what happens.”

Leonard’s continued knee problems have been a key talking point around the Clippers for the last few years, but whispers of the star’s viability grew in volume after Leonard was forced out of the team’s first-round series loss to the Dallas Mavericks, and it was exacerbated by the two-time Finals MVP abruptly being pulled from Team USA the day of their first exhibition game.

The mystery surrounding Leonard’s departure only added to the questions.

Team USA managing director Grant Hill spoke that same night about the decision to remove Leonard from the roster, saying that they looked at the “totality of the camp” before conferring with the Clippers and “speaking with Kawhi and his representation.”

A few days later in Las Vegas, the same city where Leonard had participated in camp with Team USA, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank spoke with gathered media. One of the topics of conversation was Leonard’s leaving of Team USA, where Frank said he was “quite frankly very disappointed” in USA Basketball’s decision.

The timeline of quotes didn’t stop there, with Frank meeting with media a week ago as he normally does before the start of the season. Frank once again noted his dissatisfaction with Team USA’s decision, saying that he was “disappointed” that they opted not to give Leonard “a longer runway” after he had been cleared medically.

It appears that Leonard will likely not be ready for the start of the season despite the forward telling media at his press conference Monday that he thinks he can be ready by the time the team plays their first game of the season.

“That’s the plan,” Leonard said when asked if he anticipates playing on opening night.

“I never plan to miss games,” Leonard remarked. “But it’s just about my body. I’m a human being and we’re playing basketball, so it all depends on what we want and what we figure out and how my body’s feeling. But right now, I think it is a positive thing to think that I will play, but we’re taking it day by day.”

Despite the troublesome injury history, Leonard does feel some sense of comfort in coming out of the other side of this whole ordeal.

“I mean, yeah, especially what I was dealing with for a while,” Leonard said Monday when asked if he feels any relief knowing there’s been a breakthrough in figuring out how to better manage his situation.

Leonard continued: “But like I said, it is not like a shocking [situation] when things do come up, if you are in the building and discussing and seeing what I’m doing on the floor and coming back from the meniscus and playing all those games and my role. So I mean, we’ll figure it out.”

The 33-year-old played 68 games last season, his most since the 2016-17 season. Leonard averaged 23.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 3.6 assists on 52.5% shooting. Leonard achieved All-NBA Second Team honors and an All-Star bid.

“I’m happy that I’m feeling good,” Leonard said. “It’s feeling a lot better than it was, so I’ll just, like I said, we just take it one day at a time, one step at a time and hopefully I can get through these playoffs this year.”