Ty Lue Reveals Emotional Conversations With Kawhi Leonard Over Injuries

LA Clippers coach revealed Kawhi Leonard was almost in tears over his injuries

Apr 21, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) looks on from the bench during game one of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs against the Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Kawhi Leonard has had some of the most unfortunate injury luck out of any player in the NBA today. Year after year, the Clippers have looked like a favorite to win the NBA championship, but then Leonard fell to injury. For the past three seasons in a row, Leonard has missed the playoffs due to injury.

Leonard has received very unfair criticism because of the injuries, especially from national TV analysts like Stephen A. Smith. Leonard's coach Ty Lue was a guest on the Stephen A. Smith Show where he defended his superstar. Not only that, but Lue revealed that Leonard has been on the verge of tears over his injuries.

"He wants to be on the floor, he wants to play every single night," Lue said. "It's just a bad timing. It's not like he said okay we get to the playoffs I don't want to play. It's been some tough days, some tough nights. I talked to Kawhi nights where he's almost crying, just talking about how he's let the team down. You can't do anything about injuries. He's another guy that works extremely hard every single day to be on the floor, to be on the court, and it's just some unfortunate luck."

Ty Lue says there’s been nights where Kawhi Leonard is almost in tears because he thinks his injuries have let the Clippers down.

Lue: “I’ve talked to Kawhi, nights where he’s almost crying just talking about how he’s let the team down.”

🎥: @stephenasmith pic.twitter.com/KmEHGEWv1E

— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) December 9, 2024

It's a very unexpected statement from Lue because so many fans look at Leonard as an emotionless robot. They don't think he actually cares about missing games, but then they don't see how much work Leonard puts in to recover from his injuries.

"This guy works hard every single day Stephen A, in the weight room, on the court, on his game, everything, every single day," Lue said. "It's just sad for me because I see the work puts in, our players see the work he puts in, our organization sees it, and then when it's time to play, he can't go."

Lue additionally revealed that Leonard has been wanting to play while he's only 40% healthy, but has to get stopped by the coaching and medical staff.

"A lot of times, it's myself or our organization, like hey listen Kawhi, you like 40%, like you can't go out on the floor because he's going to make it even worse," Lue said.

For four straight seasons, Kawhi Leonard has had to rehab a major injury. The process of rehabbing isn't easy both physically or mentally, and it's something he hasn't received any credit for. Hopefully, he can finally make it worth something and get a happy ending.

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