Kawhi Leonard missed the end of the season and part of the Los Angeles Clippers’ first-round playoff game because of an injury, but the team said it isn’t concerned about him playing for the U.S. Olympic team.
“Not really,” Leonard told ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “They were positive about the situation, so yeah, they weren’t too worried about it.”
Leonard played in 68 games during the 2023-24 season before suffering a knee injury in April.
Leonard has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, especially the past few seasons, struggling with injuries in each of the past three seasons, missing most of the playoffs and missing the entire 2021-22 season with a torn ACL.
Leonard has been active on the court this season, averaging 23.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game.
But Leonard has been candid about the injury, saying it’s “just my journey,” according to Bontemps, and he plans to put the injury behind him now and focus on helping Team USA win a gold medal.
Leonard, a finalist for the U.S. team the past two times, will be competing in his first Olympic Games this year when he joins a star-studded squad that also includes LeBron James and Stephen Curry in Paris later this month.
The team will begin its Olympic journey on July 28 against Nikola Jokic’s Serbian national team.
