Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Glimpse of a New Era: Kawhi Leonard


Tim, Tony and Manu reached another milestone as the Spurs pulled off a gutsy win over the Clippers in LA Monday night. Together they have 500 regular season wins-- second only to Bird, McHale and Parish of the Celtics. Despite this feat, the trio struggled for most of the game. Tony was ice cold with only three of his thirteen shots falling. In a very uncharacteristic and frustrating moment, Manu missed both foul shots that would have put the Spurs up four with three seconds left in the game. Even though old man riverwalk put up eighteen, it wouldn’t have been enough if we didn’t have the cornrowed savior.

Kawhi Leonard carried the boys to 500 with a career high of twenty-six points.  This time it didn’t come purely out of the motion of the offense. “We ran more plays for him [Kawhi] tonight than I ever have in his career,” said Pop after the game.  If this is what we can expect when more responsibilities are placed in the largest hands in the NBA, this may very well be Kawhi’s team by the end of the season. Just imagine when he gets over his conjunctivitis and his vision is 100 percent.

I love Kawhi Leonard. He’s a Spur to the core and everyone knows it. That’s why San Antonio collectively shivered when he wasn’t offered a contract extension by the Oct. 31 deadline, making him a restricted free agent next summer. However, this morning USA Today released an article where Kawhi spoke very candidly about his future. “I’m pretty sure ill be in a Spurs jersey for my whole life,” said Kawhi. Someone in San Antonio is going to make that quote into a banner and hang it from the Alamo. Local news stations are already breaking the news.

There is nothing more Spur than loyalty, and after twelve years the most loyal trio in the NBA need someone strong enough to continue this tradition. The future of the Spurs is unclear beyond this season, but I see Tony and Kawhi running the floor together as selfless MVPs and Spurs for life. 

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