Detailing Kawhi Leonard's knee injuries and why he needs "load management"

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT details LA Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard's ongoing knee injuries on both legs including bilateral tendinopathy and a possible hematoma and why these injuries make load management critical for his health and fitness moving forward.

[@younggarrett93]

I'll never understand how some people really just think he's sitting out because he just doesn't want to play. That's so ridiculous. It's basketball and he's a basketball player, of course he wants to play.

[@lilrock447]

younggarrett93 and nba champion, he takes winning more seriously than 95% of the league does, that’s what it takes to stand out and be arguably the best player in the game

[@rodavis32]

Dude is soft and will never win another ring lol. The league doesn't want the King of load management to be the face of the league. The Lakers will regain their claim to glory!

[@lilrock447]

Ro Davis he already won twice hating ass nigga, fuck you

[@lilrock447]

Ro Davis nigga your best player AD is soft, watch them go on a losing streak and lebum Blames will activate blame off mode and your ship will collapse faster than the titantic

[@younggarrett93]

@@rodavis32 nobody was talking about being the face of the league. And by what means do you conclude that he's soft, because he's injured?

[@ShinetheLightofTruth]

Good stuff as always. The media can be so harsh on athletes. Back and knee pain can be crippling. It seems as if the media wants the athletes to play until they run themselves into the ground and have to retire. Kobe!

[@thatblacksamurai2481]

Kobe played through injuries which in my personal opinion will make what he had worse.

[@3cbperformance]

Media and public at large as well. As an athlete, you have to take care of yourself first and foremost

[@3cbperformance]

ThatBlackSamurai Uchiha His attitude was definitely a double edged sword

[@smoothgent1011]

The problem is that he say im healthy but taking games off

[@frostyshark6317]

Not only did I learn about Kawhi's injury, but a little more insight to what might be happening with my own knees! Great stuff, I subscribed for more.

[@3cbperformance]

Thanks for watching and subbing!

[@ronaszn9728]

In his Last season before the injury He played 74 games in 2017 and was top 3 in mvp voting. Did load management and Played 24 games and 43minutes per game in the 2019 playoffs, while putting up historic performances. But the media (led by bronsexuals) will slander him because he wont play back to backs against the Hornets and Grizzlies in december lmfaooo

[@matp111-9]

Khawi will show up in the playoffs, when it matters, and shut all the haters up when he wins his 3rd chip.

[@killforce787878]

Awesome video. He moves slower due to it as well. I've watched games he played in Toronto where he tried to Sprint at full speed down the court. He pulled up in pain and didn't try that again. As fast as he might seem to move it isn't him at full speed. He's holding back due to this injury.

[@MultiJayjack]

Facts. He moved so much faster when he was with the spurs. At times it looked like he was running on nitro oxide or something.

[@3cbperformance]

You can definitely tell that he's more measured now with his movement. Great point

[@Agneolisiin]

Not an NBA fan really, so it was mind-boggling to find out that the league can actually force teams into playing players and rest is not a criterion for exclusion?? I know it's about the ratings, but that cannot be a healthy attitude.

[@3cbperformance]

To their credit, the NBA is much better about player health and safety than most leagues

[@MsRonnie85]

Thanks for breaking this down!

[@3cbperformance]

MsRonnie85 you’re welcome

[@luissantiago6556]

What is the name of the product of your knee that bears or is the brand that it marks. I need to buy it.

[@MultiJayjack]

Awesome video sir. Very insightful. Explains a lot. An he really does get a bad rep. His spurs highlights are ridiculous, Most definitely compared to last season and this season. Saying the man is soft and is scared to play, is extremely disrespectful. This Man is fighting everyday. Just to play the game he loves. He doesn’t have the same speed or quickness or leaping ability as he once did. An hasn’t been efficient as he once was also. But, the guy is still pushing and using smarts to do it. I got to commend him for that.

[@3cbperformance]

agreed completely. Thanks for watching and commenting

[@ericaunzo717]

Can you do a video about Brandon Roy's injury pls? Thank you.

[@shaolinhooligans23]

Why doesn't Kawhi wear a knee brace during games? Wouldn't that risk his injury even greater if he doesn't wear protection? I started wearing knee brace myself because I had tendonitis in my right knee :(

[@3cbperformance]

A knee brace hasn’t really been shown to do much for tendinopathy mechanically. It can add a sense of confidence and comfort but it’s not changing the amount of load through the tendon

[@eureka0521]

He's tried compression pants and stuff like that a few games, but he always comes back to just wearing no extra gear so I'm thinking thats what hes most comfortable with.

[@Joe-pk7uu]

Does it make any sense to have him sit out a season to fully recover or does this type of injury persist irrespective of how long you let it heal?

[@Clipppers]

He already sat out a year so it wont do much.

[@ila83]

@@Clipppers he sat out a year for a right quad injury this is his left knee now you're speaking to two completely different situations

[@Clipppers]

@@ila83 This injury is a degererative injury, it didnt come from this year or last year, hes had it alot longer than you think.

[@Clipppers]

@@ila83 What really set the injury to be what it is right now was the zaza incident, look at the video. Kawhi holds his left knee right after zaza steps under him which is the knee hurting him now.

[@ila83]

@@Clipppers I dont think thats the case I to respect your take but I have a different look at it .... He didn't show any indication of having any left knee problems before the 2019 playoffs and that occorance with zaza doesn't say his left knee was hurting him I see players all the time bend their knee grab it upwards to take their ankle off the floor

[@thatblacksamurai2481]

Very interesting video I learned a lot and could leg strengthening exercise lower the Tendinopathy that Kawhi has? I had inflammation in my knees/legs due to playing basketball constantly for hours on end playing both sides of the floor while not realising that I had gotten holes in my trainers. Didn't feel pain in my legs and knees to a few years later and when I was doing Muay Thai was having some slight pain in my knees and legs it wasn't until the following year later after I had stopped Muay Thai I had started to get sharp pain in my legs and knee following that I had went to my doctor. He stated to me it was due to my flat feet didn't notice I had holes in my trainers until after I had went to checked he recommended me to do squats and my legs and knees are feeling way more stronger then they had ever been.

[@3cbperformance]

ThatBlackSamurai Uchiha Nearly 100% chance that’s he’s doing targeted and progressive strength training to strengthen the tendon and the surround musculature

[@Blackmachismoo]

Thank you.

[@3cbperformance]

you're welcome

[@3cbperformance]

@Mark W As I mentioned in the video, rest alone isn't a cure and it's something he will have to deal with for his career most likely

[@3cbperformance]

@Mark W Majority of people are uninformed, especially when it comes to injuries and especially a tendinopathy

[@3cbperformance]

@Mark W It may to an extent but he still has to prepare it for the high stress of playing at some point (and rehab alone doesn't do that). Further, there's a close to 0% chance he takes a year off in the prime of his career

Remembered Kawhi's lingering knee issues, I thought it might be related to my case. Never knew what his official diagnoses were until this video. Thanks for putting it all together. After watching, I do not think my case is related. My knee pain onset was Dec 2019, nontraumatic. Felt like an overuse injury. S/S aggr w/ weight-bearing and ease with rest. The longest period of time I've taken off from rehab since onset was 3 weeks. S/S did ease, but pain with weight-bearing continued in correlation with increased activity/load. X-ray and MRI clean. Had proper eval by orthopedic surgeon and DPT, both unsure of the cause. The obvious solution is to reduce activity to a baseline that does not increase S/S, and then gradually increase as S/S allow. However, I find it puzzling how much this injury has negatively affected my ability to train without having accompanied imaging findings (I know imaging not always correlated). Further, it interests me what treatment a professional athlete would get if they had a similar injury to me. I am assuming they may have an antiinflammatory shot by now.

[@3cbperformance]

Andréas Remis To your final question - depends on the injury, full history, load demands, etc. Not sure what you mean by anti inflammatory shot but tendinopathy doesn’t have much associated inflammation. Further, MRI being “clean” doesn’t mean much either as you noted

@@3cbperformance The antiinfl. shot (e.g., cortisone) was referenced to an athlete who has my injury, not tendinopathy. My initial hypothesis was meniscus or cartilage because of the association with weight-bearing. Even tho the MRI is "clean", I still suspect medial meniscus could be involved. Other differentials include synovial plicae syndrome or synovitis. I asked radiology to give me a definitive on if remnant plicae were or were not present, but they were unable to. However, feels more WB related along the joint line than strain related.

[@3cbperformance]

Andréas Remis gotcha. I misunderstood then

[@aldoorea2128]

Great in depth video!

[@3cbperformance]

thanks for watching

[@mcmerry2846]

I had a tendinopaty in the patellar tendon, that shit hurts and restricts a lot of functions

[@3cbperformance]

Oscar's voice yes it certainly can

[@MultiJayjack]

So what’s the difference between tendinopathy and tendinitis ?

[@3cbperformance]

Same thing but tendinitis is an outdated term as "itis" means inflammation but studies show that there's little to mild inflammation in these tendon injuries, rather the tendon fibers are disorganized.

[@MultiJayjack]

3CB Performance wow really? I thought there was a big difference.

[@3cbperformance]

@@MultiJayjack I'd consider that a major difference but it's just terminology

[@MultiJayjack]

3CB Performance ok

[@ZanosuMangustas]

Now he is undergoing surgery for Partly tear ACL. Sad :(

[@3cbperformance]

Yes he is. Unfortunate turn of events

[@StyledTheDon]

To simply put he has a b roy problem in one knee. which means he has a 4 or 5 yr stretch before he hangs it up

[@3cbperformance]

That's not true. BRoy's issue was degenerative cartilage which to arthritic changes in the knee. He would've benefitted considerably from a load management approach

[@darylhagtusan2146]

Is this serious injury ?

[@3cbperformance]

Yes it's serious in the sense that you need to manage it moving forward so it doesn't get worse.

[@tombrandy2011]

kawhi is a big threat to lebron' that's why they criticize in order for him to stop L management. .

[@andreferguson2564]

All this information sitting right here, and we still got knuckleheads fans and media peeps getting all mad because Kawhi is missing games, when 99% of 'em aren't even fans of the Clippers. You could even see that he was clearly playing on half a peg in the 2019 finals, after landing awkwardly following a dunk on Giannis in game six of the ECF. All this evidence out here, and folks still wanna act stupid. I weep for humanity.

[@3cbperformance]

Unfortunately, most people don't actually want to know real info

[@akki90able]

Why doesn't he have some surgery for this?

[@jiggafromstatefarm9997]

Because it’s Degenerative

[@trapaneezus]

Kawhi is going to be the Andrew Luck of the NBA. At least he got a couple championships though.

[@3cbperformance]

That’s a big difference lol

[@MultiJayjack]

3CB Performance the rings are?

[@3cbperformance]

@@MultiJayjack Correct

[@cutedog7275]

He went from Kawhi Leonard to Kadaver Leonard, he's already declining.

[@britneymcafee]

He not done you hater

[@younggarrett93]

False, career highs in points, assists, and rebounds.