Kawhi Leonard’s unthinkable fallout with the Spurs has $219 million riding on it and is threatening the NBA’s most stable franchise

To understand Kawhi Leonard’s current chasm with the San Antonio Spurs, consider the last time the organization faced a crossroads with its franchise star. In 2000, Tim Duncan, then 24, was a free agent and heavily considering leaving the Spurs for the Orlando Magic. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and Duncan had several meetings in which they discussed the future of the Spurs, with Duncan expressing concern about the direction of the franchise. As Popovich told Ian Thomsen in his new book, “The Soul of Basketball,” one factor, in particular, made the meetings productive and eventually led Duncan to re-sign with the Spurs. “And so it was just like that, back and forth, but we sat there together,”