RETIREMENT IS BEST FOR KAWHI AND EMBIID WHEN THEY MISS WAY TOO MUCH TIME

The leading NFL players — not to mention Ohtani and Judge — always show up to work but not two alleged NBA superstars, who aren’t serving their franchises or the league or the fans and should move on

     The Wall is the human siege inside Steve Ballmer’s new arena, the Intuit Dome. The Wall intrudes on enemy sharpshooters — Kevin Durant and Devin Booker among them — and forces them to miss free throws thanks to 51 uninterrupted rows of seats, including an immediate courtside mob of screaming Clippers freaks. The Wall is a way to coax fans into the building.

     “I missed a free throw, man. I was pissed,” said Booker, who usually hits 87 percent. “So that s— might work. You spend $2 billion and put a wall up.”

     But there’s a larger Wall in the world of Ballmer and Los Angeles’ No. 2 basketball team. His name is Kawhi Leonard, who chases fans away because he doesn’t shed his civvies and wear a uniform. Since signing with the club five years ago, he has missed 179 of 435 games and has joined Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid as the NBA’s biggest load-management frauds. There is no reliability in their resumes.

     You pay big money. You create bingeworthy TV time. They don’t play.

     Can we kick them out of the league?

     If injuries are the actual problem, both players should retire and stop driving people crazy with their inactivity. And if this is about sitting in slower periods and stealing as much money as possible — when Leonard signed a $153 million extension for three more seasons and Embiid signed a $193 million extension for the same length — both should be locked in a room and forced to watch Michael Jordan’s trustworthy regular seasons.

     How many times did the greatest of players perform in all 82 games?

     Eight.

     How many times did he play in 81, 80 or 78 games?

     Three.

     How many playoff games did he miss in Chicago?

     None, even when sick in Utah from bad pizza or a hangover.

     Leonard won a championship in Toronto after winning one in San Antonio. From the moment he arrived in southern California, he has blown off the team and might as well inhabit a spot inside The Wall. It has reached the point where a former strength and conditioning coach is suing the Clippers and executive Lawrence Frank, claiming the team was unsafe in applying medical treatments to Leonard’s various injuries. Randy Shelton also claims the team recruited Leonard while he was under contract with the Spurs and Raptors. He wants damages at trial, which finally might bring the Sly Kawhi into public focus.

     “Mr. Shelton's claims were investigated and found to be without merit. We honored Mr. Shelton's employment contract and paid him in full,” the team said. “This lawsuit is a belated attempt to shake down the Clippers based on accusations that Mr. Shelton should know are false.”

     The question becomes whether Ballmer, who did crazy dances on opening night as a magnificent high-tech scoreboard used cannons to toss t-shirts, will hold onto Leonard for another phony postseason. That assumes the Clippers will make the playoffs. At this point, why not move on and trade him to become another team’s headache? Why not the Golden State Warriors, who need more help for Stephen Curry and might ship Jonathan Kuminga and others? The NBA’s richest owner extended Kawhi’s deal this year. Why?

     “Welcome home, Clipper Nation!” he chanted while complaining the arena sinks aren’t deep enough because, “I just don’t like it when the bathrooms get wet on the floor.” The rest of us don’t like it when Leonard watches blankly from the bench.

     Funny how Leonard and Joel Embiid were suited up for practices and ready to play for Team USA in the Summer Olympics. Leonard was told to come home by the Clippers, who didn’t feel comfortable with him in an international tournament. Turns out he is sidelined indefinitely this season with inflammation in his right knee. The team says his status is “week to week.” Try month to month.

     Year to year.

     Embiid was fine in Paris and returned with a gold medal. Naturally, a big man who played only 39 games last season — and never has played more than 68 games — will sit as long as he wants. The 76ers say he isn’t injured. He had knee surgery last winter and participated in the playoffs. So?

     He’s cutting class. He doesn’t feel like suiting up. He’s a stiff once again. At least Leonard can point to injuries sometime in his hazy past. Why is Embiid blowing off the league’s rules about healthy players performing for fans, especially when his team is desperately trying to hang near the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference? No wonder commissioner Adam Silver is investigating the matter. Will he also refund fans who paid for tickets, parking, concessions and garb?

     “The plan is why he’s not playing,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “He did not re-injure himself, but the plan is we don’t feel he’s quite ready, strong enough, light enough, whatever it is. They’ve determined he’s not quite ready to go.”

     Whose plan? The team’s? Shouldn’t the league body-slam the Sixers and basketball executive Daryl Morey with an exorbitant fine while demanding Embiid report to doctors assigned by the NBA? The grand idea is to make sure Embiid is well in the postseason when the team never has advanced beyond the conference semifinals.

     Retirement makes sense.

     Twice.

     “Man, I don’t have any idea what the Sixers are doing. I don’t think it’s fair,” Charles Barkley said on TV. “He just signed for three years, $193 million. Three years, $193 million to play basketball. We’re not steelworkers, we’re not nurses, like people who’ve got real jobs who have to work 40-50 hours a week. We’re playing basketball at the most four days a week. Most of the time three days a week.”

     Missing weeks, for the hell of it, doesn’t happen in the NFL. Shohei Ohtani batted 731 times in 159 games — after another elbow surgery last year — and has played in every postseason game. Aaron Judge went to home plate 704 times in 158 games and played 118 times in the outfield. He has played in every postseason game. Will Leonard watch the World Series? Will Embiid watch the World Series?

     Why not? They’re doing nothing else.

     ###

     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.