The NBA and Kawhi Leonard may have already moved on from his ankle injury, but one Spurs fan has not.
Juan Vazquez filed a lawsuit against Zaza Pachulia and the Warriors after Pachulia stuck his foot in Leonard's landing zone during Game 1 of the teams' NBA playoff series on Sunday, according to court documents obtained by the San Antonio Express-News.
Leonard re-aggravated an ankle injury and was forced to miss the rest of Game 1 and all of Game 2, both Spurs losses.
The MVP candidate is considered questionable for Friday's Game 3, a must-win for San Antonio if it wants to have a chance against the two-time defending conference champs.
According to Vazquez's suit, which was filed in Bexar County district court in Texas on behalf of Spurs season-ticket holders and San Antonio card shop What's On Second, Pachulia acted "without excuse or justification, intentionally and maliciously invaded the landing zone of an opposing athlete, Kawhi Leonard."
The lawsuit continues that Pachulia's ill-placed foot "devastated the quality of the Spurs' chances of being competitive and having additional games in their home arena, both in the Western Conference Finals and also potentially in the NBA Finals" and also negatively affected "the value of the tickets purchased by plaintiff subsequent to their purchase."
For retribution, the lawsuit states guilty players should pay for their "actual and exemplary damages," a temporary restraining order to be placed on guilty parties to keep them from carrying out such dangerous actions in the future, and any other "relief" injured parties may need.
"All we are asking from the court is that this type of behavior, that can and does cause serious injury to our team and those that love it, not be allowed in San Antonio," said Alfonso Kennard, Jr., lead attorney for the plaintiffs.
