Imagine you're Kawhi Leonard. The best player on the other team is standing in front of you, and you have to guard him — night in and night out. You're exhausted after the game, but instead of unwinding when you get home, you pull out a notebook and watch C-SPAN instead. Why? Because your coach assigned current events homework. According to LaMarcus Aldridge, this might have been the reality The Claw faced in San Antonio.
LaMarcus Aldridge recently joined Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their "All The Smoke podcast' and revealed the rift between Kawhi Leonard and Gregg Popovich. Now, it's not unusual for Popovich to take a somewhat unique classroom approach when coaching. For example, DeMar DeRozan spoke about a time Pop made the team watch a National Geographic movie about penguins instead of game film. However, all players do not seem to agree with this approach.
Here's the quote: "He [Kawhi] didn't wanna do all like the other s*** that Pop do too, like the learning s***. He just wanted to hoop. Everybody don't wanna learn about what's in Africa or learn the maps. He just wanted to hoop. Which, I ain't saying it's right or it's wrong...he just didn't wanna do that."
Kawhi Leonard spent seven seasons with the Spurs and even helped them win an NBA championship in 2014. So, on top of winning Finals MVP, Kawhi was also tasked with being well-versed in socio-political events.
For context, Jock Landale, a current Houston Rocket and former San Antonio Spur talked about Popovich's infamous assigned homework. In fact, at one of his first team meetings, Landale stated he was required to prepare a two-minute presentation on Joe Biden. Landale explained, "It's so much more than just basketball. He's always quizzing us about issues in the world, just trying to really broaden our knowledge on things greater than basketball. He could easily come in and make everything about basketball given that that's our jobs, but he tries to make it so much more."
There are clear signs that something is working, even if not for everyone. With 1,368 wins, Gregg Popovich holds the record for most wins by any coach. Though the Spurs are 5-28 as of now, Popovich is undoubtedly a Hall of Fame coach. So, even if the Spurs' current record does not reflect it, Gregg Popovich’s coaching success is clear.