Kawhi Leonard intends to play again for Gregg Popovich and run a gold medal.
Leonard said Sunday at the NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta that he intends to compete with US basketball this summer at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics – which would reunite him with Popovich.
Leonard spent his first seven seasons in the NBA with Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs, before moving to the Toronto Raptors and now to the LA Clippers. Popovich will serve as head coach at the Olympics for the first time.
“My plan is to leave,” Leonard said. He helped Popovich and Spurs win the 2014 NBA Championship and was the MVP of that season’s NBA Finals.
The Olympics could be a potentially tightening of the schedule for Leonard. The Clippers will likely be one of the contestants who will win the Western Conference Finals and play in the NBA Finals – which, if they go to seven full games, is scheduled to end on July 22nd.
The Tokyo Olympics begin on July 23, and the United States plays its first game against France on July 25.
“If I feel tall and ready to move on, I’ll play,” Leonard said.
US Basketball is expected to complete a group of players of about 60 names – many of them returned from the 44 announced as members of the group last year, a group that includes Leonard – in the not too distant future. From there, a team will be chosen, and the current plan is to bring that group to Las Vegas around July 1 to start the training camp and a series of exhibition games against other national teams.
U.S. staff, including general manager Jerry Colangelo, men’s national team manager Sean Ford, Popovich and assistant coaches Lloyd Pierce, Steve Kerr and Jay Wright have been talking for months about plans and contingencies – including what players might even want to wait for. if their NBA clubs go deep into the playoffs.
Many top NBA players have said that entering the 2019-20 season means they are considering Olympic plans before the pandemic hits and the Olympics are rejected for a year.
“There were a lot of people in 2020, but the pandemic alone killed almost everything,” Leonard said.