Meyers Leonard attributes a significant portion of his absence from the NBA to season-ending shoulder surgery in February 2021 and an unsuccessful ankle surgery. On Monday, he reiterated his desire to return to the league and said there is interest. “As everybody in the room knows, there’s plenty of NBA teams who want me and that I could be playing for right now, but I’m just not healthy enough,” he said. “Did the incident help my case? No. But this time to heal? Yes.”
Source: Gavin Good @ Chicago Tribune
Source: Gavin Good @ Chicago Tribune
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Leonard hails from Robinson, a southeastern Illinois town with a population of about 7,150 people according to US Census data. He and Andrusier acknowledge his upbringing played a role. “Very small place,” Leonard said. “Very loving people, very hardworking, blue-collar people. But I wasn’t exposed to a lot of different culture, religion, etc. I just wasn’t. Does that make me a bad person? No. Did I make an ignorant mistake? Yes.” -via Chicago Tribune / January 20, 2022
Dealing with the backlash has been the most difficult obstacle of his life, he said. “To make it in this day and age, I think it’s slowing down a little, this cancel culture of sorts, but it was very hard,” Leonard said. “We’ll put it that way. I’ve been through some tough (expletive) in my life and just nothing compares.” Leonard said he was doing so badly that he sought professional help and began eye movement desensitization therapy, a nontraditional method of psychotherapy that targets post-traumatic stress syndrome. -via Chicago Tribune / January 20, 2022
“I would be ecstatic if I could play for the Miami Heat again. I fell in love with that place, I really did. My wife and I love it there.” Meyers continued … “There’s something about the culture there that’s just me.” -via TMZ.com / October 26, 2021
