San Antonio Spurs News: Tony Parker Blasted For Kawhi Leonard Injury Comments

Tony Parker, Gregg Popovich and Manu Ginobili have been blasted by former San Antonio Spurs player Stephen Jackson for their handling of Kawhi Leonard's injury situation.

Leonard has missed all but just nine regular games for the San Antonio side this season, with his last appearance coming in the 112-80 win over the Denver Nuggets on Jan. 13 due to a quadriceps injury.

The 26-year-old was expected back in action by mid-March but his return remains a mystery with Spurs players reportedly holding a meeting recently to implore Leonard to return to the lineup and help the team in its push for the playoffs, according to ESPN.

The players were said to have expressed frustration at the 2014 NBA Finals MVP's continued absence as they have been struggling with a 6-4 record in their last 10 games and their NBA playoffs participation still not confirmed with eight games remaining in the regular season.

Parker recently caused controversy when he said he suffered a similar injury to Leonard, only his was worse. In addition, Ginobili stated last week that Leonard would not be returning for the regular season and that the Spurs were playing under that assumption.

Jackson, who played for the Spurs in two different spells from 2001-2003 and 2012-2013, was not pleased with the duo's comments, particularly with Parker's who he labeled as "selfish."

“For Tony to come out and make the statement about his hamstring or quad was 100 times worse than Kawhi’s is so low," Jackson said Monday on FOX Sports 1’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd,” as quoted on YardBarker. "And the timing of it is even worse. You talk about this meeting, y’all want him on the team, is he gonna be with us or not, and now all of a sudden this last week, you and [Manu] Ginobili both come out and talk about it at the same time. I played on this organization. They came at me sideways before when Pop [head coach Gregg Popovich] asked me to say other people was better than me, so I know."

"He [Parker] can be selfish, and by this comment, I won’t be surprised if this makes Kawhi wanna leave. Because when your teammates go against you in the media, not having your back, you know that’s coming from up top, why would you wanna be there … By the fact that came from Tony like that, that’s super low. I lost a lot of respect for Tony because they always say, ‘Well this is a class act, this is a class organization.’ That was low coming from one of your teammates.”

Jackson also went on to add that the comments from the two longtime veterans are coming from Popovich, who he claims organized the players-only meeting to discuss Leonard's injury.

"Pop ... anything that comes out in the media or anything that needs to be said or distributed down to the team, it comes from Pop through Tony and Ginobili," Jackson explained. "Now you may not believe this .. that meeting that came down from Pop to those guys. They didn't do that on their own. Tony don't have the balls to do that. Ginobili don't have the balls to do that. I don't think no one fears them to respect their word. That came from up top. No question."