JJ Redick Goes off on Stephen A Smith for Saying Kawhi Leonard Should be Forced to Retire! NBA ESPN 

“You know how many clipper fans i know” lie number one right there ..

Both have a point it’s a thin line between empathy and expectations when your paid that type of money.

Stephen A 🤡

7 months later I’m here laughing 😂😂😂😂

SAS got called out on his BS! Until he names a source then it's not true

Mad dog is stupidly suggesting players should play thru injuries and risk getting seriously injured more. And when they are seriously injured, teams dont want to sign them anymore.

I know for a fact that kawhi was hurting by the end of 2019… everybody on that team was ! But guess what. Kawhi brought a championship to our city. Thank you Kawhi, we’ll always love you for that

Dunk on warmups is different from playing in a competitive game. Klay was dunking during later stage of rehab but that doesnt mean he was ready according to GSW.

Whatever The Clippers decide to do w/ Kawhi is their business. We don't have a dime in that dollar and it doesn't effect our bottom line.

lads a dunk isn't a crazy movement. Fighting through a pick-and-roll or contesting a rebound is much more of a strain. When a person is injured they do different motions, however, in a slower motion, they're able to control their balance and intensity. Mental strain is real, in the moment he may be able to dunk with himself, but maybe not at fast and higher intensity level where the body and mind have to be connected strongly and healthy

I don't see how a guy who's been involved with championship teams multiple years, and literally willed the Raptors to a title on his shoulders, is "the worst superstar" in history. Even if his health has been crap.

JJ should’ve asked them if they felt the same about AD.

You cannot tell a person how they feel. Commenators ate talking about their Money not the Coaches.

I like that jj used the term empathy. People may confuse that w weakness or a lack of greatness but it's a rare commodity in the world now, in or outside of sports. Priority wise, damn man this world is quite distorted

I'm not sure which is crazier: owners continue to pay injury prone superstars max contracts or fans continue to support teams in the load management era.

Look at those old players now, how they limp, bad backs, CTE if we’re talking about sports in general. The idea of playing through injury is nonsense and load management makes total sense, IN A SENSE.

The thing is, playing through injury back in the day was the ONLY option bc the money was hard to come by and guys didn’t have a back up option to be successful. Why limit your ability to be physically and mentally healthy long term to come back for a series? Mad Dog makes a horrible argument. Just like saying guys who get concussed in football should come back out to play would be dumb AF

I think after the Isaiah Thomas thing no super star is gonna take the risk to play and aggravate an exciting injury and miss a big pay check. No player wants to be the next Isaiah Thomas

“I remember when they didn’t have rims and backboards and they had to play using peach baskets.” ~Mad Dog Russo

Stephen is 1000% correct this time, this man has played like 20 games in 5 years. He’s a great player, but part of being great is stayin healthy.

He is always talking about Black Men MONEY.

I think you hit it right on the dot my friend, great points.

People forget Brandon Roy played with no knee cartilage.

Stephen A Smith: another dumb comment Mad dog: dumb comment Narrator of the video: also dumb comments But i respect all dumb comments someone had to make them Thank God we have JJ to keep Stephen A and Mad Dog in line.

“load-management” should be eradicated.

Honestly this is the most objective I’ve heard someone in a while. Subbing!

To have a sister sentence to life is beyond basketball .kawhi , I understand that life is bigger then basketball I respect you and I’m so sorry what your dealing with .

Kawhi Leonard is a tragedy. People beat up on him because he’s polite and he’s not on social media and he’s not an expert at becoming a favorite of woke politics. They feel like it’s safe to go after him. The real story, is about a kid who watched his father get murdered at 16, watched multiple siblings, go to jail, and only wanted to get his family out of the situation, who worked so hard, he went from scoring 16 points on the bench at 40% to being better than Kevin Durant, and still out, scoring him with a torn meniscus. People talk about Austin Reaves, and how hard he worked to improve his game. How he’s maniacal and does nothing but eat sleep and breathe basketball…. He was a undrafted, so that hunger is understandable. Kawhi Leonard the year after being called defensive player of the year and winning a championship and decided to not go on vacation and went from 40% efficiency to 52% going from 16 points to 22 points. The year after winning finals MVP, and being clearly the best to a player in the game, he decided he needed to work on his three point shooting. He went from a 32% three-point shooter to shoot in 46% coming off of a catastrophic knee repair. Unless you’ve played sports, you have no idea how hard you would have to work to improve like that. He wanted to be great in mid range, and he became the best, after he already got a huge contract. He wanted to help his team and saw the three point was the future and now he has a bettter’s percentage did Stephen Curry this season. We normally associate people who stay unhealthy as not being hard workers. They either are not rehabbing properly or simply want to get paid and don’t want to play basketball. Kawhi Leonard is the exact opposite and everyone of his teammates say that he literally works like two of them. When he would do workouts, he would bring 2 workout partners one for the early side, and one for the late. Russell Westbrook played with LeBron James and said Kawhi Leonard works harder than any player he’s ever seen, and Russ is known as a hard worker. Hell, the ex clippers who left like lemon pepper Lou and Patrick Beverley said Kawhi Leonard is on another level with his work ethic…. So rather seeing this, as a kid, who was victimized by San Antonio and made to play, even though his knee was killing him, the media decided to cover Popovich and say Kawaii was difficult, and there was nothing wrong with his knee…. Until later they were forced to retract that when they got the evidence that he had a torn knee ligament that led to the head of his muscle ripping off. I’m other word for team doctor said he was fine, and they gave him a surgeon who botched the job and shorten his career by years. This last few years has been a bad stretch, but it was the exact same with Kevin Durant, and no one was saying he should retire when he hadn’t played for two years for the nets. Imagine next year Kauai, looking the way he did in these playoffs, but finally having his knee, be ready to go. Then how stupid with all of you look? He’s the best player in the world after two botched, reconstructive knee surgeries… he’s the best player in the world when he only got to do for months of rehab because this last surgery rejected the donor tissue. In reality, he shouldn’t even have to come back this season. But he did it because he felt pressured. To us he’s been out for two years, to his me that had a botched donor ligament, it was only for healthy months before it seated. Because of that and because the team needed him because Paul George went down he was playing 46 minutes a night, and played a complete game. I’m not a partial, but a completely torn meniscus. KL is tougher than any us. Most of us couldn’t even stand, he was guarding Kevin Durant. So spare me a righteous sanctimony. Please go tell me how this poor billionaire is being taken advantage of by the millionaire who is playing on a torn meniscus… I like how everyone in simping for the billionaire . Steve Ballmer can lose $42 million a a week for a year and still be fine. The clippers new Kawhi Leonard load managed so stop saying it’s not OK. Steve Ballmer knew he was gonna play 60 games a year so it is OK. People are acting like the NBA has a hard cap and it doesn’t. Kawhi Leonard could’ve demanded he was paid twice as much as Paul George… in fact, when he first came to the Clippers, they told Kawhi to write his own check. He told them he wanted Paul George, but whoever played with him should get the same amount. People are bagging on KL now when he tore his meniscus and still played on it . The dude told everyone the surgery was botched and because everyone is so quick to judge him because he’s not in the media constantly like LeBron James., he doesn’t have the same coverage. If you take the Brooklyn Nets a year ago, Kevin Durant was just as bad . They brought him after he tore his Achilles and he was out for two solid seasons, then came back and got hurt again. Then they had James Harden get hurt at just the right time….. why was he not calling for Kevin Durant to retire? Kawaii is not the same at all as Zion … Kawhi Leonard has had multiple botched surgeries on the same knee. He’s never had a chance to fully heal even though it doesn’t appear that way to us. This honestly was the best thing that could’ve happened long-term and I’ll tell you why … he did not have a chance to rehab, his knee but because he felt the pressure he came back to soon. But rather than his ligaments, tearing the meniscus tour instead , so he’s gonna get this off-season, and I believe his knee could be fully healed by the time he comes back. Kawhi Leonard played against Kevin Durant and booker, and was clearly the best player in the court while his knee was hurting. When he is healthy, there’s no one else in the league who is as good as him in the playoffs. We should all feel terrible for him. He would’ve literally been a top-five player if Zazai never hit his knee. If he wasn’t a maniacal worker, he would’ve never gone from a 15 point OK shooter, to the best mid range, assassin in h recent history and then after realizing he was not good enough at three shooting 46% this last season….. you never hear about stories like that, unless they are undrafted players who are incredibly hungry like Austin Reaves. Kawhi Leonard did that after he was finals MVP…. So it has nothing to do with his work ethic or commitment to basketball. 99% of the time he situations are because people are not committed and don’t want to work. AD in Zion for instance is hurt nonstop because of weight issues. Kawaii was hurt because he was a young kid who trusted San Antonio and they’re searching that they recommended butchered his knee, now he has tons of scar tissue- and his immune system attacks any donor tissue.

Play players per games played, if kawhi is due to make $42 million per year then break that down per 82 games, its like $512,000 or so he would get paid per game, if he only plays 50 games then then so be it 🤷

Contracts gotta have an availability clause unless agreed upon

Stephen A, Mad Dog and this presenter forgot that Kawhi played through injuries to win the championship with the raptors. Commitment and health should be separate. Kudos to JJ.

These guys no next to nothing about sport. JJ is exposing that and you know they hate it. This is why Stephen A is focusing on his podcast, so he can control everything.

What was the name of Samuel Jackson's character in "Jango" again ?... Was that Stephen A Smith ?... I don't remember.

Great video!

Kawhi has never "load managed" just to load manage. People seem to forget that before the ACL injury, kawhi had been dealing with knee tendinopathy. The only help for that is rest. That's why, per doctors orders, Kawhi didn't play in a number of games. You either rest your knees or they get worse the more you play. 2. Coming off an ACL injury/surgery, it didn't make sense to have Kawhi play in every game. Yes, kawhi was frustrated about his minutes restriction and you could see it in his face when he had to come out of games, but after a major surgery, it would make sense to bring him back slowly. So kawhi doesn't load manage. Testing his knees helped with the pain and the Clippers medical staff kept him out of games

I feel the Doctors released him too Early from the First injury.

Never forgot max said Kawhi was better than Kobe 😂😂😂😂

Stephen A is always counting a black man’s money. 🙄 Also, why the hell is he calling organizations about releasing Players??? This dude is nuts.

Next year when you gotta play 60 games to get your money i bet you he will be on that court lol

Knee injury is the most terrible thing, SAS doesn’t understand that. How will you play with knee injury. I have 2 years with torn meniscus and even when I stomp it hurts imagine If I were jumping or playing basketball

Stephen A. Thinks he can talk to owners and coaches and learn everything there is to know about the game, he downplays the major disadvantage that he has: he never played in the NBA! There’s things he’ll never understand and he doesn’t want to

Dunking is simply running fowards and jumping straight up and down. It requires zero lateral movement, zero stopping on a dime and change of direction, zero stop and go. Those are the type of movements that test the stability of a hip, knee, or ankle joint. That's the test any professional sports trainer will give a BB player before clearing them to play.

Kawhi is still my number 1 guy. I'm just glad he got two chips before injuries could railroad his career and he should still be playing. 🙏

I feel like the clippers are being robbed here but that's just my perspective. I have never played at a college level or nba level and sustained the injuries he has also. I just think teams and players when signing contracts need to look at the big picture more. Don't pay the players as much and see how they perform with a short contract. If they perform better than expected then pay the player more when it ends or renegotiate. Very simple

It's really bad timing with the brand new intuit dome opening in less than 2 years. I can't see steve ballmer blowing the thing up until after the new arena opens. You still gotta sell tickets to those games in inglewood, california & people want to see kawhi leonard, paul george & maybe russell westbrook too all play together. #IJS

Mental Hurdle because the Crowd was not there. So you are talking about what you think.

A torn hamstring (depending on how severe) doesn't start hurting until the muscle warms up. You'll think your fine for the first 5 to 10 minutes of a game and then BAM! The pain returns. Because you have been walking on it for a week with no problem you will think its gotten better. Its the running and jumping that brings out the pain in a torn hammy.

Stephen A’s argument is based on the idea that basketball players don’t want to play basketball, they would rather sit on the sidelines, fake injury and collect a check. The games are what they live for. If they can’t go, there’s a reason for it.

This only proves how great LBJ is, I always say this in any sports.. Training in the gym is one thing but the greater part of training is how one takes care of his body outside of training and when he is not competition. Discipline is a virtue that only a few can practice.

Why was mad dog upset that Molly was calling him mad dog but let’s Stephen a call him that all the time

The best outcome is for Kawhi to restructure his contract andcut his own salary (like tim duncan). but the team knows they are taking a risk when they signed Kawhi. Tough luck that one of the worst scenario is playing out now

The nba needs to take away there money if they want to load manage David stern would never let shit like this happen for my birthday last year I went to bulls game expecting to see Damian Lillard play and he didn’t even show up not even on the bench at bare minimum one of my friends went to bucks game and Giannis sat the first game vs dc but next night against the same team he drops 50 nba is pissing off its own fans and best player not participating in dunk contest and 3pt contest or barely trying in all star game I wish I got grow up in 80s and 90s nba when players actually cared about and don’t get me started on kyrie

You think he’s worth that 43 now? 😂😂😂

Stephen 'Hate' Smith......

JJ will be removed like Max Kellerman was.

Dude, basketball is fun, whether you get paid or not, if you can play, you’re gonna play. Nobody says they don’t want to play, because they think basketball is negative. It’s some kind of way. When you’re basketball player, you always want to play, even if it’s for free.

Love the way dog responds because it is important that kind of money and u think steve balmers happy rn 😂😂😂😂

I use to watch sports shows all the time. Now I watch in moderation,I can't watch these guys talk as if they can't be put in their place and can't take an L. How often do they actually agree? Agreeing won't help ratings.

Why should he take less money? If the owner pays me 40 million to sit then I'm taking it. Its called negotiating

No matter what the situation is with Kawaii , but it's not up to Stephen A to say what the Clippers should do. Ordinarily SAS is my dude, but he's dead wrong here. It ain't up to him, but saying he's the worse superstar is way out of line. And he's not in the league to play ball, forget all the other stuff. Like Howard Cosell, he never played the game

Knowing is entirely different from doing... Stephen A should shut his mouth. I played streetball from my teenage years and I can relate with J Redick. The last time I played I was surprised how talented kids are of today.. Back in the days it's more of very physical in the shaded lane and half court offense with perimeter shooting as main menu. Today, kids has little of everything. They can run and run, everybody has dribbling skills to a certain level, almost everybody can shoot from perimeter and basketball IQ threshold has increased.

Now look where these broken down Men are now.

Kawhi is my favorite 2nd KD but his knees is shattered can't take the pounding through a season. He needs to retire

Saying he should agree to take less money if he misses games is way out of touch. If you have to miss 3 months of work because of a family emergency, should you take a paycut or take less? No way! You shouldn’t be penalized for something out of your control. You can’t expect a man to take less because he’s injury prone. If the owner pays it that’s on the owner.

These basketball organizations need to wise up and stop giving exorbidant contracts to people who might not be able to play

Steven A Smith think he’s the gatekeeper for the NBA

JJ Reddick was such a Dbag for saying what he did. He had to mention that you didn't play in the league! That's not even relevant in this matter

Players are weak as hell nowadays. Plain and simple. JJ is just out there to protect player interest.

JJ Redick is all the way wrong here, but exTREMELY arrogant as usual. Stephen A Smith is 100% correct.

At least you didn't interrupt after every sentence. That's so annoying.

JJ "I'm the voice of all players" Reddick Some media/players agree with JJ Some media/players agree with MD 🤷🏾‍♂️

Like you said, Zion doing fancy dunks and shit and then not playing even if it's not at all the same thing...is atleast the worst thing you can do for public image. Looks like he's healthy enough to do crazy athletic stuff but doesnt want to give it a go. CJ Mcollum even called him out in his post seasons media.

This narrator is right... play or leave

These people are barking up the wrong tree. The final decision on a star player's pay is made by the owner. If they feel aggrieved that Kahwi Leonard is paid too much, they ought to attack Steve Ballmer, not Kawhi.

The money matters when one considers they cannot re sign Westbrook, the one dude who DID play vs phx, for more than 3 or 4 mil. Imagine the guy playing 52 games is getting paid 42 million and you're making 10 percent of what he does. Nah man, that matters, grown men see it and wonder... people in an office setting wonder why someone makes more who works less etc. This matters too

Yeah I completely agree with JJ Redick. Because it was like KD got hurt in the 2019 NBA Finals against Kawhi's Raptors and played again in Game 5 and got hurt again then he couldn't play anymore. Because when it comes to injuries you don't have to play when you're already injured but when you expect them to play anyways then they're at a higher risk of getting injured again. Because if that happened to MJ then he wouldn't have to play 82 games when you're injured but he did it the hard way because he was never injured and that's why.

The money doesn't matter cause if he out played contract they wouldn't pay him more

Bro said Jerry west averaged 43 points per game in the finals with a torn hamstring ima have to google that cause that sounds like straight bs 😂

Cant believe I kinda agree with that SAS dude on this one

If they got Lenard knowing he has injuries. Then they put up with what ever comes with that. Even f he retired they would have to pay him. 😂

I don’t feel the slightest bit bad for Steve Ballmer. He is worth over $50 Billion (yes with a “B”) and he made all that money by stalling Microsoft’s growth for a whole decade! Microsoft still paid him everything they owed him despite his garbage performance. So it’s ok he can pay Kawhi without even feeling the slightest pinch

He should go to Milwaukee cause i don't believe he would load manage around Giannis, and Kawhi won't allow Giannis to bring the ball up the court in the 4 quarters of the playoffs plus great defenders, great champions, great Durant and Lebron stoppers, both big hands and both are fun guys.

JJ smoked those clowns.

That old white guy said he would take Kawhi Leonard over Kevin Durant, he must be out of his damn mind. He would be the only person dumb enough to take Kawai over Durant. Why would you take somebody That’s always in the hospital, over one of the greatest scores in NBA history.

He should take less money...seriously??? I'm not making any excuses for Kawhi but like JJ said he is battling with injuries. Now if he risk playing and does permanent damage to his knee that leaves him crippled or incapacitated in some way, all of the same ones criticising him for not playing will be the very first ones to switch up and sing a different tune. As the old saying goes, Don't judge somebody until you've walked a mile in their shoes. It sucks if you're Steve Ballmer that isn't lost on me, but like it or not injuries are a part of the game just ask Ralph Sampson, Bill Walton, Brandon Roy, Sam Bowie, Greg Oden, Grant Hill, Yao Ming, Penny Hardaway, Tom Gugliotta, Antonio McDyess etc these are just a small few who readily come to mind as having had their promising careers derailed because of injury. So as usual SAS is just spewing nonsense for ratings sake....but that's just me

You get paid what someone is willing to pay. If I’m offered 40 million to play, I’m taking it.

Bruh a 360 dunk does not mean you’re not dealing with any mental health issues or that you’re not focusing on them. That’s absurd. Im sure most of you who had a cold or the flu before stayed him from school or work and played video games or something like that..

A mad dog named all these people that play with these injuries and where did get them

I’ve never met anyone who agrees with steven A. smiths takes

Yes smith. Kahwi should retire. You nailed it smith.

Always talking about who he knows and how well he's connected! Imagine if JJ was not a NBA player he would have walked all over him!

This dude is about to sit out another full season.. Hope you all know that..

Who takes S.A. serious? He is a jester and stay saying wild ish talking to somebody about basketball is not the same as playing my boy

The money is just a way to get a personal argument. All those players are getting paid and getting played for less. Getting played on potential alone. Then you may as well target all players in the NBA.

And I think sports betting his something to do with it as well.

Boy!! Did JJ Reddick tear these idiots a new a$$hole or do my eyes deceive me!! Nope!! That was flucking AWESOME!!!

Steven A is right! Kawhi Lenard has been done for years! Today's players can't play 80+ games anymore! He is eating too much cap the Clippers are stuck paying his fully guaranteed contract and the only chance of getting better is if one of the rookies ends up being a super star

I think Zion is the perfect example, he may be not close to 100 and what he is trying to do is “simulate” what he can normally do in an in game situation with his “workout”, thats the first hurdle, if he cant even do that in his warm up then thats definitely a no go to play, but if he can do it in his warm up, then now what he is trying do is to psyche himself up that this is all mental now. But if he feels like he still not comfortable doing it in warmup even when it looks to us mortals like he is 100 but in his mind he feels heavy or what not. Then its still not a good sign.

Players don't just choose to not play - I don't know Zion's issue I'm talking in general. It's the medical staff that decides for them to go or no. And no the money does not matter at all if the players are actually hurt. They're not paid millions of dollars to destroy their bodies, they're paid millions of dollars to play basketball. If their medical situation does not allow them to play then they shouldn't play. That's not up to the player, it's up to the medical staff. Now is the medical staff leaning too heavily on making them miss matches? I don't know I'm no medical expert. But it's their decision and any objection should be on medical grounds only. And about Kawaii getting a pay cut, that's between him and any teams that want to pay him. The clippers do take a risk with a player that's injury prone so if they consider that risk too great then they can offer him less money and if wants it he can decide to take it. If not maybe he can find another team that may or may not consider the risk worth taking. Just saying he should take less money is useless, should he be forced to ask for a pay cut? Or should other teams not be allowed to offer him more if the clippers do decide to offer him less. That's all unrealistic talk. His injuries hurt his "stock" therefore if this continue he will be offered less and less. No point to add any more complications around this.

You clearly never played bball. 🤦🏻‍♂️