Kawhi Leonard: How the money and the injury will determine his future

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 02: Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs reacts in the second half against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on January 02, 2018 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

The Money

If reports are true that the San Antonio Spurs will make Leonard a Designated Veteran Extension offer this summer, here are some of the mind-boggling figure estimates for his new salary structure according to Steve Kyler of BasketballInsiders.com and Bobby Marks of ESPN:

Leonard would look like this...
next year ---> Year 1 $20,099,189.00
Year 2 $35,350,000.00
Year 3 $37,774,000.00
Year 4 $40,198,000.00
Year 5 $42,622,000.00
Year 6 $44,137,000.00
$220,180,189.00 https://t.co/cGZgHldOyX
— Steve Kyler (@stevekylerNBA) March 29, 2018

So if he were to play this season and say, fully rupture his nagging quad, heaven forbid, he would be guaranteed the remaining ~$42m on his current contract. But if he sits this one out and the Spurs offer an extension and he signs, he could essentially swap a ~$21m deal in 2019-20 for an additional $200 million through 2024.

Not a bad move.

He’s made around $65 million to date from the NBA and Nike. So this would be about a 336 percent increase from his earnings to date. Ask yourself, how much risk would you be willing to take on for that kind of money?

Now, if you read all that and thought to yourself “oh he’s definitely healthy enough to play, it’s all about the money” than you may be the type of juror to convict a teenager of killing both of his rich parents just because he was the lone heir to their fortune.

More from Sir Charles In Charge

A massive monetary incentive does not necessarily prove anything. And we have more evidence to look at.

In fact, there is a strong precedent for Leonard playing through debilitating injuries in a contract year for a sum even larger relative to his net worth in the past. In the Fall of 2014, fresh off limiting the game’s best player, LeBron James, in the NBA Finals, the Spurs chose not to offer their budding superstar a $90 million max extension; instead betting that the extra ~$9 million they’d create the following summer would help them re-sign Leonard and also pursue an elite free agent like LaMarcus Aldridge; a bet that paid off.

That season Leonard dealt with weeks of blurry vision from Conjunctivitis and ligament damage to the hand he had surgically repaired just months ago.

Think about that. Imagine, for a moment, you won NBA Finals MVP and expected a $90 million contract. But instead, you play for an organization that prides itself on convincing their stars to take significant pay cuts to help them contend and they said wait one year for your money.

But at this point, you’ve earned less than $6 million dollars (roughly $5.3m from the Spurs through three pro-seasons and maybe another half a million dollars from your 2013 Nike deal). If you can just stay healthy you’re looking at more than a1600 percent increase in your net worth! And you now messed up the same hand you just had surgery on! Your shooting hand?! Surely, you might be tempted then to play it safe and sit out right?

Kawhi actually didn’t. He followed his competitive instincts, risked hurting himself, and won Defensive Player of the Year.

Next let’s look at his full injury history…

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