Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard: Possible Finals MVP award ‘doesn’t mean nothing to me’
San Antonio Spurs swingman Kawhi Leonard has been playing out of his mind during the 2014 NBA Finals, so much so that he’s been being mentioned as the MVP of the series.
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But according to Brett Pollakoff of NBC Sports, winning the Finals MVP isn’t one of Leonard’s priorities. If fact, he doesn’t really care about it all by comments that he made at the team’s practice.
“It doesn’t mean nothing to me,” Leonard said at Saturday’s to the media at the Spurs practice facility. “Just try to go out and win the next game, and that’s all I’m doing.”
Leonard, the Indiana Pacers 2011 15th overall pick, scored 29 points in the Spurs’ Game 3 win, followed by a 20-point, 14-rebound performance in Game 4 that gave the Spurs a 3-1 series lead over the defending Champion Miami Heat.
For the series, Leonard is averaging 16.7 points and shooting 58.9 percent and has been one giant thorn in the side of Miami’s LeBron James.
Those are definitely MVP type numbers, and if the Spurs come away with a series-clinching win in Sunday’s Game 5, Leonard will be in the mix for the award, whether he cares about it or not.
But Leonard isn’t too concerned with the pressure of an NBA Finals clinching game either.
“It feels the same for me as any game going into it,” Leonard said. “All I’m thinking about is playing. I’m not worried about if we win or lose, and we just want to go out and play.”
Definitely a case of a player reflecting the personality and teachings of his coach there.