Editor’s note: With the NBA suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, staff writer Jeff McDonald looks back at some of his most memorable moments since joining the Spurs beat before the 2007-08 season.
WHEN: June 23, 2011
THE SKINNY: Heading into the 2011 NBA draft, the Spurs’ era of NBA dominance appeared on the downslope.
They were a little more than a month removed from being bounced from the playoffs in the first round by Memphis, becoming only the second No. 1 seed in the best-of-7 era to lose to a No. 8.
It marked the third consecutive postseason the Spurs had failed to venture past the second round.
Instead of letting the Tim Duncan-Manu Ginobili-Tony Parker era go out with a whimper, the Spurs’ front office rolled the dice on draft night.
General manager R.C. Buford traded George Hill — a beloved backup point guard coach Gregg Popovich called his favorite player — to Indiana for its 15th overall pick, a 20-year-old sophomore out of San Diego State named Kawhi Leonard.
Leonard would go on to become one of the most dominating players in the NBA, with four All-Star berths, two Defensive Player of the Year awards, two league championships and a pair of Finals MVP awards already — although not all of it accomplished in San Antonio.
Photos of Leonard briefly bedecked in a Pacers cap while shaking then-commissioner David Stern’s hand on draft night continue to haunt fans in Indiana.
THE SIGNIFICANCE: Nobody knew it on draft night, but Leonard’s arrival pried open the Spurs’ championship era for another several seasons.
He wasn’t the best player on the Spurs’ teams that made back-to-back Finals appearances against Miami in 2013 and 2014, but the franchise likely doesn’t make those runs without him.
When the Spurs at last knocked out the Heat in 2014, ending a seven-year title drought, Leonard became the youngest player not named Magic Johnson to earn a Finals MVP trophy.
Had Leonard not left town for Toronto in the summer of 2018, after a falling out with management, it is possible the Spurs would still be competing for championships.
VIEW FROM PRESS ROW: Draft night at Spurs headquarters is typically a low-key affair. Reporters gather in the media room, dine on pizza and chicken wings and watch the same ESPN feed of the draft as the average Joe sitting on their sofa.
At some point, usually after a few hours, the Spurs selected a player many of us have never heard of. Once the entire draft has concluded — all 60 picks — Buford will emerge to tell us all about said draft pick.
Heading into the 2011 draft, there were rumblings this one could produce a bit more drama than we were used to in Spurs land.
Rumors swirled in the days before that the Spurs might even be willing to trade Parker in order to move up in the draft.
Instead, the Spurs dealt Parker’s backup. Hill had been a solid Spur himself for three seasons. He was well-liked and a useful role player.
As such, “Spurs trade George Hill” was the immediate takeaway of the night.
Not much was known about the quiet kid the Spurs had received in exchanged for their second-team point guard.
I assume we talked to Leonard via speakerphone in the Spurs’ work room that night but can’t recall anything special about the conversation.
Leonard had been a second-team All-American at San Diego State, and though the Aztecs were not a traditional college basketball power, they had won plenty of games in Leonard’s two seasons there.
It would take a while for the world to see what the Spurs saw in Leonard.
Labor strife meant a lockout heading into the season, and Leonard would not make his Spurs debut until December.
Even then, Leonard’s early days with the Spurs were spent as a blue-collar type role player — he would rebound; he would defend; he would do dirty work.
Even in a 2013-14 campaign Leonard would end as the Finals MVP, he averaged 12.8 points per game.
By then, Leonard’s star was on the steady rise. It was only in retrospect we came to realize what a seminal moment draft night 2011 was in Spurs history.
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN