David Robinson is one of the greatest San Antonio Spurs of all-time, spending his entire 14-year career with the franchise. He’s a Spur though-and-through. So his opinion about the organization matters. Robinson’s got a message for current disgruntled Spurs star forward Kawhi Leonard: We want you but you’ve got to take control.
Robinson joined ESPN’s Get Up! on Thursday voicing the opinion that Leonard’s situation is salvageable, but the 26-year-old needs to be his own man and figure things out with the Spurs.
“I think for Kawhi, it’s about growing up, right? You step into that responsibility, man, you’re the face of the franchise. You can’t *not* talk, right? You’ve got to let people hear your voice, not somebody else’s.”
“If you want to be a top two or three player in the league, you’ve got to be a leader. LeBron doesn’t sit around waiting for people to talk for him. LeBron gets out there and says ‘hey, this is my team, this is what’s happening.’ And I think that’s where Kawhi is. He’s meant so much for our franchise. We love him, we all want him to be there next year. But we want him to be there and take control.”
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Leonard, one of the five best players in the NBA, requested a trade from the Spurs after ducking from the franchise after what appeared to be a small injury caused him to miss nearly the entire season and playoffs. His team disagreed with the Spurs handling of the situation and seemed entirely displeased with the organization. Ultimately, Leonard demanded a trade.
Robinson’s input is bang on. Leonard’s got too many outside voices telling him what to do. If he wants to repair his fractured relationship with the Spurs he’ll have to do the talking. Whether that will happen remains to be seen.
