Raptors address Gregg Popovich's comments about Kawhi's leadership

Leadership style and effectiveness is an unquantifiable beast.

With so many different ways to lead and so few methods of actually measuring it, the intangible is very vulnerable to opinion and interpretation. Last week, Kawhi Leonard’s former coach, Spurs bench boss Gregg Popovich, had a few choice words regarding his former star.

“Kawhi was a great player, but he wasn’t a great leader. Manu and Patty were the leaders. Kawhi’s talent will always be missed, but leadership wasn’t his deal at the time. That may come as he progresses. Patty and Manu filled that role for us last year. LaMarcus came a long way as a leader also,” Popovich said.

On the most recent episode of Inside The Green Room, Pascal Siakim and Danny Green shared their thoughts on Pop’s scrutiny of their teammate.

“I don’t think [Pop] discredited [Leonard’s] leadership ability, I just think he said it in terms of being vocal. That was never what Kawhi did. But he never said it wasn’t something he couldn’t grow into doing — he said he had the potential to do that,” said Green.

Siakam echoed the sentiment that Popovich’s comments were not meant in a malicious or critical way.

“At the end of the day, I feel like that’s not a surprise, like everyone knows that Kawhi’s quiet and does his thing.”

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