Gregg Popovich had to take matters — and the microphone — into his own hands on Wednesday night.
During the Spurs’ matchup with the Clippers, the legendary San Antonio head coach had clearly had enough with the booing Kawhi Leonard was facing at the free throw line.
Leonard spent seven years with the Spurs, helping the team win the NBA Finals in 2014.
He was traded to the Raptors in the 2018 offseason, amid reports he wanted out of San Antonio, and won a title in Toronto in his one and only season there.
But despite the five-time All-Star’s contributions to the franchise, the fans at Frost Bank Center were letting him hear it while he was at the free throw line during the final minutes of the second quarter.
Leonard, getting showered with boos, sank his first free throw, but as he got ready to take his next shot, Popovich took a microphone at the scorer’s table and let the home crowd hear it.
“Excuse me for a second,” the Spurs coach said. “Can we stop all the booing and let these guys play? It’s got no class, it’s not who we are. Knock off the booing.”
As Popovich dropped the mic and walked back toward the bench, he started to hear it from the crowd, though he literally waved them off in a last attempt to get them to stop.
Leonard and the Clippers topped the Spurs on Monday in San Antonio, and fans let him hear it with boos when he touched the ball throughout the night.
“It’s a completive fanbase,” Leonard said after that game, per the Associated Press. “They want to win every game. Once I come into the game, there’s going to be boos, but walking around the city or going to restaurants, they show love.”
The boos might not be new, but Popovich’s actions sure feel like it in what was truly an unreal scene in Texas.
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