FavreFan wrote:
I don't think this is remotely accurate. LeBron's only real Finals criticism came in 2011 and he was significantly worse than Kawhi was in his Finals appearance. The media has happily doled out excuses for every other Finals loss.
It's also ridiculous to call Kawhi's 2019 Finals underwhelming unless you consider him the greatest player of all time.
Steph never receives media criticism. Durant brings any and all criticism he receives on himself with all his numerous ridiculous interviews. Don't tell me you didn't reluctantly put Harden in that group too, even you think he's a joke.
Kawhi has received a lot of criticism for how he handled the SA exit and even more criticism for the load management nonsense. Some people were justifying it after he won the Finals but the criticism resurfaced again last night and today after he did it again in the 5th game of the season.
I disagree with pretty much all of this. As a preface, let me note that I don't think any of the things I say about these players is necessarily the dominant narrative, but that the backlash they've received has been far harsher and more vocal in the media than anything Leonard's done up to this point. My point isn't that those guys don't receive praise, but that they've received far more criticism than Leonard, at least until now.
Lebron and Steph have been criticized for finals
they've actually won, never mind the series they lost. Two of the most popular narratives are that Lebron is so unclutch he had to be saved by Allen and Irving for his two most recent finals wins, and Steph somehow has earned a reputation of playing worse in the finals and not being good enough to win finals MVP despite averaging better stats in the finals than the regular season.
Durant, even after his titles, still catches more heat for losing 3-1 to the Warriors than Kawhi ever did for losing to that same Thunder team as the best player on a 67-win Spurs team in 2016. And Harden's a joke of course, but can you imagine how much more hated he'd be if his disgusting game on the court was complemented by any of the things Leonard's done? None of this even gets into the amount of criticism they also tend to receive on a game-by-game basis in the postseason, which I think the media has also largely not directed at Kawhi up to this point ("he's tired because of his injury/workload in the regular season" is quite a bit different and more sympathetic than "he just didn't show up").
I likewise don't feel like Leonard caught anywhere near the amount of criticism any of those star players would have if they had the kind of divorce he had with San Antonio. Hell, it wasn't just glossed over or justified when Toronto won the title, but actually celebrated because Durant's injury somehow revealed a deep truth about players taking their health seriously or something, regardless of it having little to do with Leonard's previous situation. As I said in my original post, I really didn't see anywhere near as many people outraged about the San Antonio situation as I'd expect from another franchise or star player.
As for the current situation, I think it's kind of much ado about nothing. It's something that allows the network to talk about early season NBA when usually nothing really matters. Old players like MJU can huff and puff about how much tougher they were/how soft this generation is, and as JBills notes, it's great content for the dozens of talking head segments that exist. But even if you do want to say that the criticisms Kawhi has been getting have teeth though, I'd counter that this is the first time he's receiving that kind of widespread backlash that comes with being regarded as a superstar, especially compared to the treatment the guys I mentioned have been getting for years.
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