Sports The Los Angeles Clippers had no allege with Kawhi Leonard playing for the U.S. in the Paris Olympics this summer and wanted him to stay on the crew, frequent supervisor Lawrence Frank acknowledged Monday.
USA Basketball eliminated Leonard — whose NBA season used to be disrupted on the conclude due to a knee allege — from its roster final week after a four-day, four-be conscious coaching camp and modified him with the Boston Celtics’ Derrick White. USA Basketball acknowledged that it and the Clippers sure that Leonard now no longer playing this summer used to be in his easiest hobby.
“It used to be USAB’s call, and I was, rather frankly, very upset with the resolution,” Frank told newshounds in Las Vegas. “Kawhi desired to play. We wanted him to play.”
Leonard uncared for 12 of the Los Angeles Clippers’ final 14 video games this past season with appropriate knee inflammation, though he acknowledged final week that he felt fine, and the knee used to be doing effectively. But USA Basketball — which has Clippers coach Tyronn Lue as an assistant on head coach Steve Kerr’s staff — felt otherwise.
Leonard is a two-time NBA champion, six-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA player, nonetheless bother issues dangle been a routine theme over the final seven seasons. USA Basketball had monitored him going into camp and USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill even watched a workout earlier this summer to envision on Leonard’s effectively being.
“I was there the first two practices. He appeared very fair, used to be a elephantine participant in the full lot that they did,” Frank acknowledged. “I wasn’t there for the third be conscious, the build in the slay, that used to be the point the build they made up our minds to bolt in a various direction. I expressed then, I in actuality wished that they would dangle given Kawhi beyond regular time.”
The U.S. has been with out three-time gold medalist Kevin Durant because it convened in Las Vegas for camp earlier this month. Durant is with the crew nonetheless didn’t play in either of its first two exhibitions — a win over Canada on July 10 and a win over Australia on Monday.
If a player on the 12-man roster is bother right thru the Olympics, there may per chance be no replace option. That’s a significant factor weighing on groups as they finalize their rosters sooner than play starts in France later this month.
“I label USAB’s standpoint that they dangle to ogle at what they feel is in the ideal hobby of the crew, despite what I feel,” Frank acknowledged. “They’re also managing some other gamers who are going thru accidents, so, I label that they dangle to enact what’s easiest. … You should bolt forward. We toughen USAB. Desperately desire to sight them win the gold medal. I know that is how Kawhi feels, too.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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