WATCH: Gregg Popovich tells Spurs fans to stop booing Kawhi Leonard
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich was not happy with a sector of the Spurs crowd Wednesday.
Midway through the second quarter in their contest against Los Angeles Clippers inside Frost Bank Center, Popovich decided to intervene ahead of a pair of free throws from Kawhi Leonard, a former Spurs star who helped the franchise win two titles before getting traded on a sour note after the 2017-18 season.
The crowd was booing Leonard when he was at the charity stripe, and Popovich wasn’t having it.
“Excuse me for a second,” Popovich said to the crowd with the stadium’s PA microphone. “Can we stop all the booing and let these guys play? Have a little class. That’s not who we are. Knock off the booing.”
Gregg Popovich does not like the booing.#NBA #GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/f09oAE8hKb
— Vendetta Media (@VendettaVSM) November 23, 2023
I watch a lot of basketball and have been in myriad crowds across all sporting events … I’ve never quite seen anything like this.
It’s legendary, and also subsequently hilarious because this isn’t new with Spurs fans and Leonard, who finished with 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting in Wednesday’s 109-102 Clippers win.
They booed him (since his departure) heading into tonight and, funny enough, booed even louder after Popovich’s plea.
The 74-year-old head coach, one of the best of all-time, has never been afraid to speak his mind. Though telling fans at a professional sporting event, who pay their hard-earned money to watch players play, to stop booing something (it’s nothing physically harmful or derogatory) for whatever reason–in this case, a superstar athlete who helped the organization win two titles (even before his sour departure)–is … puzzling?
Obviously, there have been plenty of unceremonious returns in the past, such as LeBron James to Cleveland (the first time) or Kevin Durant to Oklahoma City. Those are a couple of notable examples in recent memory, among plenty others.
Leonard helped San Antonio win two NBA Titles, the pinnacle of basketball success. Durant and James didn’t (until he returned to Cleveland in 2014-15), and one of their departures was produced as a TV show when not even his new teammates were fully aware he’d join them.
So the circumstances between the three famous scenarios were only slightly different. Popovich is all about class and goes about everything the right way on- and off-the-court. But while this one isolated instance was quite humorous, this moment exuded as much “cringe” as it did “class,” strictly since we’re in a professional sports setting. What if it was a high school game ? Maybe? It would make more sense. College? Perhaps a little more acceptable. During an NBA game (in November, mind you)? Uh … O.K.??
Popovich commented after the game that he did not want to “poke the bear,” an understandable motive. Professional athletes will find any reason for motivation, including Leonard–even if it’s a regular season game.
Fortunately for everyone involved, Leonard also did not make much of the crowd’s reaction–or Popovich’s subsequent reaction–after the game–very on-brand for the oftentimes stoic Leonard. He just shows up to hoop without expressing much emotion because, as we famously know, “board man gets paid.”
“If I don’t have a Spurs jersey on, they’re probably going to boo me the rest of my career,” Leonard said after the game. “But I mean it is what it is. Like I said, they’re one of the best fans in the league and they’re very competitive. Once I step out on this basketball court out here, they show that they’re going for the other side.
“When I’m on the streets or going into restaurants, they show love. So it is what it is.”
I’m still in shock something like this happened during an NBA basketball game. In the end, it’s not going to change anything in the past, nor will it change how Spurs fans react in the future. It’ll be chronicled five hours days months years from now as, “Wait, that really happened? Huh?”
Legendary. Funny. Confusing. Shocking. This Gregg Popovich moment was all of it, just like so many in the past the legendary Spurs head coach.
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