You can’t blame the San Antonio Spurs for not having a lot of love for Kawhi Leonard. After all, Leonard forced a trade away from their beloved team, and his exit sent the franchise into a painful rebuilding process that is still underway.
Leonard returned to San Antonio on Wednesday night as a member of the Los Angeles Clippers and was expectedly met with loud boos from the home fans. And while Leonard might not have been paying attention to them, Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich wasn’t having any of that.
Late in the second quarter, as the boos grew louder when Leonard stepped on the free throw line, Popovich decided to take the arena mic and address the Spurs fans.
“Excuse me for a second. Can we stop all the booing and let these guys play?” Popovich said. “It’s got no class. It’s not who we are. Knock off the booing.”
Popovich’s plea didn’t actually work as the Spurs fans continued to relentlessly boo Leonard. But the superstar forward himself doesn’t seem to mind them much.
“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, which the Clippers won 102-109. “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.”
Kawhi Leonard started his career with the Spurs in 2011. He helped the franchise win its most recent championship in 2014 while establishing himself as one of the league’s best players. Leonard’s relationship with the franchise broke down during his injury issues in 2017–18 and he ended up forcing a trade to the Toronto Raptors after the season.
