Spurs Fans Pile on Kawhi Leonard After Familiar Injury Dispute

Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. On Friday morning, San Antonio Spurs felt an incredible sense of collective déjà vu when they came across a report from Snapback Sports' Jack Settleman on Twitter.

To sum it up, Settleman is essentially reporting a carbon copy of what happened between Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs is happening again in Los Angeles. Leonard's camp (aka Uncle Dennis) is in disagreement with the Clippers' staff about if he should be available for the 2022 NBA Playoffs. Here's how some of the situation unfolded back in 2017 and 2018, according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburn.

"According to multiple sources, Leonard's camp has come to believe the issue has more to do with an ossification, or hardening, in the area where the muscle has been repeatedly bruised, and then an atrophy, which in turn affected the tendons connecting the muscle to the knee.

The Spurs have always called the injury quadriceps tendinopathy, which is a disease of the tendon that has a degenerative effect on the muscle by keeping it in a constant state of exhaustion.

The treatment course for each diagnosis (a muscle issue vs. a tendon issue) is different, which has become another source of tension in the relationship."

It's almost like the Clippers and Leonard are filming a shot-for-for remake of the San Antonio saga. And this isn't the first report of discourse between the two sides regarding injuries.

Something sounds a little too familiar

Last summer, the LA Clippers were within a few games of making the NBA Finals until Leonard's knee injury in Game 4 proved too much to overcome. Soon after, FS1's Skip Bayless had this to say on Undisputed:

"I have been told by a very good source that the first issue became Kawhi [being] unhappy with the Clippers medical staff," said Bayless on FS1.'s Undisputed. "Because he felt that they, early on, misdiagnosed and underplayed the extent of this knee injury."

Of course, I have to admit Skip Bayless isn't exactly Shams Charania. I'm not sure how connected he is to internal situations in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the NBA, for that matter. I also can't speak to how reliable Settleman is because I haven't come across his reports in the past. You can believe the report or not.

Still, I'm not going to let that stop me from providing some of my favorite responses from Spurs fans to the rumor.

Even the San Antonio Zoo got involved, using a snake emoji in their reply.

And I, of course, couldn't help myself either.

Time will tell if anything further develops with this story or if it's even a true story in the first place. Or a Clippers' loss to the Pelicans in the Play-In Tournament could shut this down before anything further can develop.

Either way, you better believe Spurs fans will be around to make their voices heard when reports like this start circulating.