San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich stood up for his former player, Kawhi Leonard in perhaps the strangest way possible, grabbing the arena microphone to send a message to every fan in Front Bank Center, the home of the Spurs.
Leonard played for the organization from 2011-2018, helping the organization win an NBA Championship in 2014. Most would assume this would make him beloved by Spurs fans during his return to the city on Wednesday night.
That was unfortunately not the case. While Leonard was at the free-throw line in the second quarter of the game, Spurs fans began to boo him, something they had done for much of the game.
This seemingly incensed Gregg Popovich, who shockingly decided to walk over to the broadcast booth and grab the arena microphone to tell Spurs fans to stop booing.
“Excuse me for a second,” said Popovich on the microphone while Leonard waited for his second free throw attempt. “Stop all the booing and let these guys play. It’s got no class, it’s not who we are. Knock off the booing.”
Wow. #Spurs HC Gregg Popovich just grabbed the arena microphone with Kawhi Leonard at the free throw line, and asked the crowd to stop booing.
Fans have been booing Leonard, who asked to be traded from San Antonio, on every touch.
Not sure I've seen that in an NBA game. pic.twitter.com/PHk3yD2IHG
— Nate Ryan (@nateryansports) November 23, 2023
A video of the incident from Bally Sports San Antonio on Twitter shows the aftermath of Popovich’s statement to the fans, which wasn’t exactly an overly positive one. Fans actually began to boo even louder despite Popovich’s best efforts.
https://twitter.com/BallySportsSA/status/1727509954112700640
It’s obviously an unprecedented situation for something like this to happen in the middle of an NBA game. And there will almost certainly be more that comes from Popovich after the game about this bizarre incident.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.