Leonard should listen to how his body feels 1st
then teams medical team.
If the medical/trainning staff is not helping/improving his condition....then seek outside opinion with sign off from the team
doesnt seem like this is what happened and the Spurs staff didnt get a proper chance to help him heal. Then he just did his own thing
Imo Leonard is a goner this off season. Because I bet you, if he was a UFA , he would not be doing this
No team would sign him, if their doctors weren't allow to assess his situation and be able to help get him better
Exactly why does he need to get a sign off from the team? So if they say no, the player has to abide by what the team medical staff says, even if they are wrong and could be doing more harm than good? No one, player or regular person should ever have to get a sign off from their employer to seek medical care.
And, the Spurs medical staff had been working on this problem since the end of the 2016-17 season and through the summer. Things weren't getting better or moving forward at all. So Kawhi 2nd opinions were sought. It sounds like the Spurs worked with an outside physician for a while. So for months and months and months, Kawhi did what the Spurs said and nothing was happening. How long is he supposed to continue doing what the team medical staff is telling him what to do if it isn't having a positive effect at all. It was at that point that he went to New York fir another opinion and then the Spurs seemed to get angry.
eh?
Let me put it to you this way
What is the point of passing a physical then? Or a team wanting to check a player who just came off an injury before they dole out a big contract to sign them?
Why can't the player and agent just say, "don't worry about it, our guys got checked it out, its all good"
If a player is injured, the protocol is to see the team medical staff. Then to get an assessment and "fix" the issue. So that the player can get back on the court healthy
In this situation it sounds like the Spurs medical staff gave their assessment, and wanted to help Leonard rehab/keep track of his progression or road bumps to ultimately have him comeback 100 percent
Instead, sounds like Leonard and his crew (at some point of the assessment) didn't like or was unsure about the Spurs medical staff assessment and went somewhere else and got a different answer.
If this is not undermining the teams medical staff, what is?? The team who is paying you millions of dollars should be in the front of the line to understand what is going on with your injury/health issues. The Spurs organization at the moment from what it sounds like, are in the dark with this 2nd opinion.
Does this sit right with you??
Abso-freaking-lutely. Just because an athlete signs a contract to play for a team, it doesn't force them to only use the team's medical staff. They have every right to use their own medical people too, including trainers, dieticians, and doctors.
The team diagnosed Kawhi and went with a certain therapy. It wasn't working, Kawhi's agent and family asked for the team to get a second opinion. They did and things still weren't right.
So he got a third opinion away from the team and decided to follow that doctor's care. The Spurs medical staff were only left out of the care of Kawhi after taking care of him for possibly as long as a year without things being corrected.
Every person, athlete or not, have an absolute right to seek other opinions when it comes to healthcare if they feel their current medical team isn't helping or possibly has the wrong diagnosis.
Here it looks like the Spurs medical staff may have had the wrong diagnosis. Kawhi may have possibly saved his career by going elsewhere for help. My guess is if he had to do it all over again Isaiah Thomas may not have listened to the Cs doctors, got a 2nd opinion and had surgery a long, long time ago. It may have saved him tens of millions of dollars if he had.