The winningest coach in NBA history, Gregg Popovich has been at the helm of Spurs since 1996, an eternity in the highly volatile world of professional sport. The iconic coach can therefore do things that his peers would not even dare to consider, like when he took the microphone on Wednesday evening in the middle of a match to demand that the public stop whistling Kawhi Leonard, former local glory and incidentally MVP of the 2014 Finals, the last title won by the Texan franchise. This is also the privilege of longevity!
Before the match against the Warriors yesterday, Pop’ was at it again, ensuring that he had no regrets ” absolutely not “ his astonishing gesture, justifying it by a feeling of embarrassment that had become unbearable.
“It’s quite easy to understand. I listened to him for a while and the noise got louder and louder, uglier and uglier, and I felt sorry for him, and I felt embarrassed for our city, for our franchise. Because that’s not who we are, that’s not the way we’ve behaved over the last 25 years. It’s the opposite of how we behaved, how we worked within the community.”, he added.
Hateful, disrespectful and petty?
For Gregg Popovich, these whistles are even the reflection of a polarized and aggressive world like never before…
“I think it’s indicative of the way the world works now. There is enough hatred in the world that I think this is completely inappropriate. This is not what you would teach your children. It doesn’t make any sense, it’s not wise, so on every level I have no regrets.”
The coach repeats that the standards set by the franchise are higher than that. Even though the divorce from Kawhi Leonard was difficult to digest, he is disappointed to see fans resent their former star, years later.
“It is a kind of indication of the world we live in today. It was hateful. It was really disrespectful, it was just petty. We’re the team that, when a player comes back to town after being a Spur, shows a video of him. I remember when Kawhi and Danny Green came back from Toronto, we showed videos of those guys and the audience didn’t react like that. That sums up the whole story, and now, five years later, six years later, this is what’s happening.”
In January 2019, for Kawhi Leonard’s first return to San Antonio after his transfer to Toronto, Spurs fans had already booed Kawhi Leonard copiously, welcoming on the contrary Danny Green.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Victor Wembanyama | 15 | 30.1 | 43.0 | 27.5 | 80.6 | 2.0 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 1.0 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 18.8 |
| Devin Vassell | 10 | 28.7 | 48.4 | 40.7 | 74.3 | 0.5 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 2.9 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 17.4 |
| Keldon Johnson | 14 | 32.9 | 45.6 | 34.9 | 70.3 | 0.9 | 5.3 | 6.1 | 4.4 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 16.6 |
| Zach Collins | 15 | 29.6 | 53.1 | 30.5 | 77.8 | 1.9 | 4.4 | 6.3 | 3.7 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 3.7 | 15.0 |
| Jeremy Sochan | 15 | 28.9 | 42.7 | 37.5 | 75.8 | 1.5 | 4.1 | 5.5 | 4.5 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 3.1 | 11.0 |
| Cedi Osman | 15 | 19.5 | 50.0 | 44.4 | 75.0 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 8.3 |
| Malaki Branham | 15 | 20.7 | 41.5 | 27.7 | 88.9 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 8.2 |
| Tre Jones | 12 | 24.7 | 41.9 | 23.1 | 90.0 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 2.8 | 5.3 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 8.0 |
| Doug McDermott | 15 | 16.8 | 49.3 | 50.0 | 66.7 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 6.7 |
| Julian Champagnie | 9 | 15.0 | 28.0 | 28.1 | 83.3 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 4.7 |
| Sandro Mamukelashvili | 5 | 8.5 | 41.7 | 20.0 | 83.3 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 3.2 |
| Charles Bassey | 15 | 10.6 | 71.0 | 0.0 | 66.7 | 1.3 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 3.1 |
| Devonte’ Graham | 2 | 14.5 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 80.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Blake Wesley | 4 | 5.3 | 37.5 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.8 |
| Dominic Barlow | 6 | 5.4 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 |
| Sidy Cissoko | 1 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
