To this day, Spurs fans still boo Kawhi Leonard because they think he abandoned the franchise and his former teammate has shed light on why he wanted out.
Kawhi played for the Spurs between 2011-18 and in his time there, won them an NBA Championship and earned Finals MVP.
Many at the organisation, as well as its fans, thought that Leonard was in in it for the long haul and would carry on Tim Duncan’s legacy.
But he forced a shock trade to the Raptors in 2018.
His former teammate LaMarcus Aldridge explained why things went sour between Leonard and Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.
“When somebody’s ready to go, they ready to go,” Aldridge said on All The Smoke. “Even when you’re there, certain s**t is never told to everybody, some s**t stays behind closed doors. S**t was going back and forth with them but we didn’t know what was going on.”
Stephen Jackson, who played for the Spurs in the early 2000s, also shared his thoughts about where things went wrong for Kawhi in San Antonio.
“You got to be a strong-willed and strong-minded brother to make it on the San Antonio Spurs organization because Pop is going to test you,” Jackson said. “He’s trying to make you a better person, but he will put you in many situations to test you. He did it to Me, he did it to Kawhi, he did it to couple other people,” Jackson said on All The Smoke podcast. “Me and Kawhi couldn’t take that s**t. We wanted to hoop, we didn’t want to be in the corner, we want to ISO, we wanna run pick-and-roll, and that was Kawhi’s attitude.”
READ MORE: NBA Players React to Detroit’s Heartbreaking Roller Coaster vs Boston
This website aggregates and curates news articles, blog posts, and other content from a variety of external sources. While we aim to link back to the original source, this site does not own or claim ownership of any articles, posts, or other content indexed on this site. The views, opinions, and factual statements expressed in each piece of aggregated content belong solely to its respective author and publisher. We make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of aggregated content. Visitors are advised to verify facts and claims through the original source before reuse or redistribution.
