When the mounting friction between Kawhi Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs led to his getting traded away this past summer to the Toronto Raptors, both sides figured that some bad blood would remain following the split.
However, while Spurs fans let Leonard hear it with boos in his first return to San Antonio, his relationship with head coach Gregg Popovich seems to be far from a negative one. Following the matchup in which Leonard struggled and the Spurs were able to come away with a convincing 125-107 victory, Popovich wasn’t happy about the reception his former star player received.
“I felt badly about it,” Popovich told ESPN about how Leonard was treated by the Spurs fans. “Kawhi’s a high-character guy. We all make decisions in our lives with what we’re going to do with our futures, and he has that same right as any of us. So I felt badly, in all honesty.”
Leonard also added his two cents on his reception. “Probably,” he admitted when asked if he expected to be booed. “But I embraced it and enjoyed the moment, and it’s only going to make me better.”
“[The] media does a great job to stir people’s minds and influence them to think a certain way,” Leonard added. “So I already knew how that was going to be, the way the media was.”
Leonard would go on to score only 21 points in 33 minutes though he earned those points efficiently on 8-13 shooting from the field. Leonard’s Raptors still hold the superior record at 28-12 and are tied atop the Eastern Conference rankings with the emergent Milwaukee Bucks.
Even without as much talent as in year’s past and their franchise point guard out for season, the Spurs continue to quietly play excellent basketball in recent weeks. They’ve earned victories in 11 of their last 14 outings and DeMar DeRozan was able to earn the first triple-double of his career against his former team last night. Along with DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge, Bryn Forbes and Derrick White helped propel the Spurs to an important victory over Toronto.
Though everyone was looking for some semblance of tension between Leonard and the Spurs, none was present. He and Popovich even embraced following the game, and Leonard says himself he isn’t worried about whatever may have transpired in the past. “I really won’t reflect on what has happened until I retire. I just try to keep moving and get better on what we are doing.”
