Everything you need to know about Kawhi Leonard’s Spurs breakup

Kawhi Leonard comes back to face the Spurs for the first time since his ugly exit. Here’s how we got here.

Kawhi Leonard is playing a game in San Antonio on Jan. 3. Eighteen months ago, that wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary.

Now, though, he’s doing it as a member of another team for the first time, and it promises to be a strange sight. Leonard’s new team, the Toronto Raptors, return to San Antonio for the first time since he and Danny Green were traded for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, and a protected 2019 first-round pick.

Both parties are doing fine apart — Leonard has led Toronto to the best record in the East, while San Antonio has recovered nicely after a shaky start to the season — but they were once poised to do so much more together. During his time with the Spurs, Leonard grew from mid first-round pick to Finals MVP to arguably the best two-way player in the game. He seemed like the heir to Tim Duncan’s throne.

And then the 2017-18 season happened. A mysterious quad injury led to a rift between Leonard and the organization that never came close to being repaired. Instead, Kawhi asked out with a year left on his contract, and the hamstrung Spurs acquiesced to his wishes instead of risking him leaving for no return.

A lot happened to lead to that surprising conclusion. Follow along for all the updates and in-the-moment commentary as it happened, and check out Pounding the Rock’s Summer Of Kawhi section for even more.