NBA
NBA: The great return of Leonard and Wall after a long absence
The Clippers’ pre-season began with two key additions to their squad, with Kawhi Leonard returning through injury after 477 days and John Wall returning after a 529-day absence.
The preseason for the Clippers started victorious after beating the Blazers 102-97. The Los Angeles team has more reason to smile beyond victory as they saw a weapon that was sidelined last season come back into action.
The reason for Kawhi Leonard, who has been suffering from a partial cruciate ligament rupture since June 2021, and Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals. More specifically, it was 477 days before Leonard played in the Clippers jersey again when he was saved in the first friendly of the season.
Leonard’s return wasn’t the only one, however. John Wall was another case of a player being sidelined for an extended period of time for other reasons. The veteran former Rockets guard last played for Houston on 4/24/2021 against his current team, the Clippers, for the NBA regular season.
In fact, he didn’t play at all throughout the 2021-22 season as the Rockets’ decision was to start a new team without him, eventually getting traded to the Clippers as a free agent in June 2022 after he joined one Agreement with the team to buy out.
It has been 523 days since Wall’s last appearance on the pitch, well over a year in which the now 32-year-old guard has played in a new Clippers shirt.
Source: sport 24
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