San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has never been afraid to speak his mind, but usually saves those thoughts for his pre- and post-game press conferences. He couldn’t wait to face the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night and took the microphone mid-game to ask Spurs fans to stop booing Kawhi Leonard.
“Anyone who knows sports. You don’t poke the bear.” Popovich said after the game when you ask for an explanation. After a debriefing, he declined to explain. “I spoke English, I just told you. Anyone who knows sports knows that you don’t poke the bear.”
With 3:06 left in the second quarter and Leonard at the free throw line, Popovich walked to the scorer’s table and took control of the public address system.
“Excuse me for a second,” Popovich said. “Can we stop booing and let these guys play? This has no class, this is not who we are. Stop booing.”
According to ESPN reporter Andrew Lopez, Popovich’s pleas didn’t work. The boos only got worse as Spurs fans expressed their displeasure that Leonard was back in town.
“I thought it was a great moment, although I think the fans booed even more,” Paul George said. “I think that was a great moment when Pop had Kawhi’s back in that situation.”
Leonard, of course, spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Spurs and was named NBA Finals MVP in 2014 after the Spurs won their last title. But despite his success with the franchise, which included consecutive Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2015 and 2016, his strange departure has made him a villain in San Antonio.
Due to a quadriceps injury, he played only nine games in the 2017–18 season, although there was a dispute between him and the team’s medical staff who cleared him to return. The next summer, Leonard requested a trade and was ultimately sent to the Toronto Raptors along with Danny Green in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a first-round pick that became Keldon Johnson.
This was Leonard’s 14th game in San Antonio, and he had been booed there before, so it’s unclear why Popovich decided this time was enough. Many in the arena looked perplexed at the moment, including some players, and with good reason, as we’ve never seen anything like this in a game before.
Leonard, for his part, had no problem with the boos.
“If I don’t wear a Spurs jersey, they’ll probably boo me for the rest of my career,” Leonard said. “It is like it is. They are some of the best fans in the league and are very competitive. Once I get out here on this basketball court, they’re going to show they’re on the other side. When I “When I’m on the street or going to a restaurant, they show love. It is what it is.”