Bruce Bowen Confirms Sacking For Kawhi Criticism, Hits Out At Clippers

Bruce Bowen hit out at the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday after confirming his contract as an analyst for the team was not renewed due to his comments criticizing Kawhi Leonard earlier in the year.

The former San Antonio Spurs point guard criticized Leonard, who fell out with the Spurs coach — Greg Popovic — and the team management despite spending most of the season out with an injury. He refused to be part of the team as they made the playoffs, and chose to spend time in New York undergoing rehabilitation for his injury.

Leonard was angling for a move back to Los Angeles with his preferred destination being the Lakers, but was eventually traded to the Toronto Raptors, who parted with their all-time top scorer DeMar DeRoazan as part of the deal. Both the players were unhappy with the move.

Bowen had leveled his criticism at the two-time NBA defensive player of the year prior to his trade and confirmed Thursday during an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show” that his comments in June led to his sacking. He hit out at the Clippers for terminating his contract for doing his job and even doubled down on Leonard.

“It was basically, 'We don’t view your views that way,' because of your comments of Kawhi Leonard, we are choosing to go a separate way,” Bowen said Thursday, as quoted on KSAT 12.

“Kawhi never said ‘I want to play for the Clippers.’ Kawhi said he wanted to play for the Lakers. Unfortunately, if you’re going to run your organization based on hopes, maybe, and getting rid of others, now if I tore him down and if I was disrespectful to him, that’s one thing.

“But that’s not the case. As an analyst, I’m supposed to talk about what I see and what I feel for this game that I love. If you can’t do that, what does that say about your organization?” the former Spurs guard added.

Bowen also let loose on Leonard once again after admitting the small forward is not a player his teammates can rely on and made it clear you cannot build a team around the Raptors’ newest recruit.

“No, I would not,” Bowen said when asked if he would build a team around Leonard. “There’s no way that you can say without having some type of doubt that I would want to be in a bunker with Kawhi when he doesn’t want to support his teammates. … Now, you get in that bunker with Tim Duncan, because you know he’s there, and if you’re a go-to guy, this is what’s required.”

The former Spurs guard, however, dismissed suggestions someone from Leonard’s team had pushed the Clippers to terminate his contract. He is certain he is not that influential that a player would consider not moving to a team because of his presence.