Following the Spurs’ Game 2 loss to the Warriors on Monday, Gregg Popovich sat before reporters and, in praising one star player, completely tore down another:
“[LaMarcus] doesn’t complain about a darn thing. ... He plays through everything. I can’t imagine being more proud of a player as far as playing through adversity and being there for his teammates night after night after night.”
Or maybe he didn’t. It’s possible, that the words were uttered candidly with only their most superficial meaning in mind.
Right now, everything is about Kawhi Leonard, unless it isn’t, and the fact that the general public can’t tell the difference is the result of an increasingly murky off-court situation that has, for the first time in the Popovich era, drowned out what is happening on the court.