Former NBA Star Reveals Untold Kawhi Leonard Story

Kawhi Leonard grew a lot with the San Antonio Spurs

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is not only a five-time NBA champion, but he also helped develop some of the NBA's all-time great players. One of these players is LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, who played under Popovich from 2011-2018.

Selected 14th overall by the Spurs in 2011, Leonard was not expected to become the superstar player and two-time Finals MVP that he is now. While he put in a ton of work to become this great, Leonard was also helped by the coaching of Popovich. During a recent podcast episode, former NBA star and Spurs forward Richard Jefferson revealed an untold story about Leonard and Popovich from over a decade ago.

"I remember Pop - one of my stories about Kawhi. Kawhi's rookie year, Kawhi comes in... shoots a couple of pull-ups, which is his staple shot now, like in transition pull-up. Pop takes him out of the game, halftime comes, Pop is like, 'What the f-ck? That bulls-it pull-up. You think you're gonna make an offensive impact on this team, I want you to defend, and I want you to rebound at a high level.' And then didn't play him in the second half."

Richard Jefferson talks about Coach Pop benching Kawhi Leonard for a half in his rookie season to send a message. "Pop is the master of building it brick by brick." pic.twitter.com/D7J7JcA3b7

— Josh Paredes (@Josh810) July 19, 2023

Jefferson added that Popovich can take a great player and instill winning tendencies before allowing them to fully blossom into their star potential. It's this development that can help produce winning players like Kawhi Leonard.

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