Kawhi Leonard still has braids and we’ve all been scammed

Kawhi Leonard still has braids and the NBA is less crazy because of it.

There’s a photo circulating the Internet that shows San Antonio Spurs superstar Kawhi Leonard without his trademark braids. This photo sparked fear and horror from the Spurs community, who believed that Kawhi losing his braids was akin to Samson losing his hair.

Fear not, Spurs faithful, the photo in question is nothing more than a photoshop ruse.

And you thought Dwight Howard getting traded to the Charlotte Bobcats would be the biggest story in the last 24-hours.

Now, for the real question. Who would do such a thing? Who would rob Kawhi of his beautiful braids just to stir up a little bit of Twitter controversy? Here is a list of suspects:

• Zaza Pachulia: We can never rule out Zaza in matters pertaining to the destruction of Kawhi.
• James Harden: Jealous that Kawhi’s braids get more attention than his beard, Harden decided to show off his newly acquired photoshop skills. Never question the work ethic or beard of James Harden.
• Gregg Popovich: This was a new motivation for Pop. We’re not 100 percent sure how it works or why it was necessary, but we’ve learned to not doubt Pop.
• LaMarcus Aldridge: Because he has to be blamed for everything that goes wrong for the Spurs, right?
• LeBron James: If LeBron can’t have hair, no one can.
• Someone Bored Online: The least likely suspect. No one could possibly be bored enough online to do this. There has to be more behind it. Who has that kind of free time where you think, “I’m gonna photoshop the braids off of Kawhi Leonard”? That’s the kind of free time we all aspire to achieve.

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It was a valiant effort by one brave man or woman, but they forgot the most important rule of an online photoshop prank: Consult the person you’re using as victim and make sure they’re willing to play along.