The notion of Kawhi Leonard being sidelined by a hand injury is particularly cruel, like a gifted singer coming down with laryngitis. Leonard's giant hands are his greatest weapons and most distinctive attribute on the court, a pair of sticky shovels that absorb any basketball in the vicinity. His business logo is a huge palm print.
Spurs players will grab their wrists and hold their right hands high in tribute to Leonard when he makes a big play. But after he fell on his right hand during a December game in Utah, and then felt a pop when he swatted at the ball against Wesley Matthews in Portland the next week, Leonard feared his damaged right hand could keep him out for the rest of the season.
"It's scary, tearing a ligament in your shooting hand," Leonard said.
"When I first hurt it, I didn't know if I was going to have to get surgery. I didn't know when it was going to heal, because it felt pretty bad. It's not a basketball injury. It's more a golf or baseball-type injury. I didn't know when my return was."
In early January, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Leonard still couldn't hold a basketball in his right hand. Leonard's grip returned within two weeks. So did he. And so did the Spurs' winning ways.
The Spurs lost eight of the 15 games they played in the month that he missed. Lately, with Leonard a disruptive force on defense, Tony Parker recovering from a December hamstring injury, and Tiago Splitter providing a defensive backbone, the Spurs have looked like their championship selves. They're 8-3 in March heading into Wednesday night's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder (ESPN, 9:30 p.m. ET). Leonard has averaged 20 points, seven rebounds and three steals and is shooting 53 percent from the field this month.
Sometimes it seems that Leonard is the entirety of the Spurs' transition game. He can grab a steal or a rebound, accelerate past the retreating defenders, and swoop in for a dunk. He even stands out in the half-court offense, where he now has license to bring the Spurs' free-flowing passing game to a halt as he turns, sizes up his defender and works one-on-one.
"Just getting more comfortable with my isolations," Leonard said. "I'm starting to see it a little bit more when the double-team comes. I know when to pass the ball. That's pretty much it, where I'm getting a lot of experience.
"I've been working on it since my second year coming into the league. It's all a process, and Pop getting to know the person and the player. When I first came in, he didn't want me shooting no pull-ups in transition. Just seeing me work at it in practice and it translating into the game, he gets more comfortable and confident in me doing it."
It would seem that Popovich is grooming Leonard to take over the franchise after the long-serving trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili move on. But the Spurs haven't made the same type of financial commitment to Leonard and were unable to reach agreement on terms of a contract extension before the deadline in October.
Leonard will be a restricted free agent this summer and faces an intriguing choice. He could go for a long-term contract at a major upgrade to his $3 million this season, or sign for one year and then become an unrestricted free agent just in time for the 2016 bonanza that will coincide with the NBA's lucrative new television rights deals.
There's risk in waiting, though. To wait is to take matters out of his hands -- even if they're the most notable hands in the NBA.