The Spurs decided they were done fielding offers and pulled the trigger on a Kawhi Leonard trade early Wednesday morning, sending the disgruntled forward (along with Danny Green) to the Raptors in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a protected first-round pick. And yet, even with the dust finally settled, there remains some confusion as to how the relationship between the Spurs and Leonard deteriorated so quickly.
Don't feel bad, though, Spurs fans. A San Antonio legend was just as baffled by the ongoing drama as the rest of us.
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During an appearance on Monday's episode of "The Jump," Hall of Famer David Robinson offered his reaction to the trade, calling it "one of the oddest situations I think I've seen since I've been in pro basketball."
"[Leonard is] a hard guy to understand. He's a hard guy to read," Robinson said. "San Antonio, we obviously have a reputation for taking care of our players almost too much. I mean, people criticize us for sitting guys down. Now all of the sudden, we've got a guy who says he felt pressure to play, which is, you know, tough. I mean, what can you do? We typically don't risk our players' health.
"But, if a guy's not happy, he's gotta go somewhere where he can play. I think [Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford], our team did a pretty good job of kind of meeting our needs for the future. I think we'll move on from here. I think we're pretty happy with the deal. We'll continue to grow and get better."
There had been plenty of speculation throughout the 2017-18 season about the influence of Leonard's uncle, Dennis Robertson, and agent, Mitch Frankel, with the Spurs wondering if the men speaking on Leonard's behalf had ulterior motives. Robinson, a 10-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion with the Spurs, said last month prior to the trade that Leonard needed to use his voice as the face of the franchise, but clearly that didn't happen.
"Has anybody spoken to Kawhi about this? I talked to his uncle. I mean, does that count?" Robinson said. "He's a hard guy. He's just quiet. I've reached out to him several times and just never hear anything back from him. I think the whole time he's been here I've talked to him maybe a handful of times, and I can count on one hand how many words he's really said to me.
"He's just a quiet guy. I think that that's made it difficult for all parties to really understand each other in this process."
You can watch the full segment from "The Jump" in the video below.
