Grant Hill explains decision to send Kawhi Leonard home from Team USA

Grant Hill explains decision to send Kawhi Leonard home from Team USA

Roughly 12 hours ahead of their first of five exhibitions before the 2024 Paris Olympics, USA Basketball announced that Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard will no longer be suiting up for Team USA after his camp reportedly expressed concern about playing (knee inflammation).

He was replaced by Boston Celtics guard Derrick White, one of three Celtics players on the team and the only one who’s never made an All-Star team. Team USA executive director Grant Hill explained his decision on why to substitute Leonard for White on Wednesday.

“We just felt that we had to pivot, and not to get into the particulars, in terms of what went into the decision, but we just felt it was in our best interest, but also in the Clippers’ and Kawhi’s best interest, to move into a different direction,” he said. “We tried. I think we all tried and we gave it a valiant effort, and unfortunately, we have to move forward.”

According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Leonard arrived to camp “wearing a sleeve on his right leg” with a “slight limp.” He was held out of 12 of the Clippers’ final 14 games due to his knee inflammation and has missed at least 30 percent of his team’s available games in five of the last seven seasons due to myriad knee injuries.

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Leonard, who just turned 33-years-old on June 29, will be entering a pivotal 13th season without Paul George, who signed a four-year max with the Philadelphia 76ers. If the Clippers want to contend in their first season inside the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., Leonard needs to be as healthy as possible … not risking further injury playing on an ailing knee.

“I think he wanted to be here, like all these guys want to be here, and we don’t take that lightly at all,” Hill said, according to Bontemps. “It speaks to the program and the opportunity, and so, personally speaking, I know what it’s like to want to do something and your body’s just not right. And I’ve lived that personally. And so I applaud him for coming here and being willing to sacrifice, give up his summer and represent our country and play for our program. … Ultimately, it didn’t work out.”

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