Tim Duncan says NBA refs don't respect Kawhi Leonard because he's quiet
A lot of the time, being an effective NBA basketball player means being a one-man sales team.
This, of course, is the case in many sports, but nowhere is it more readily apparent than the basketball, where your ability to sell contact and develop a certain, ahem, #brand actively affects your bottom line—i.e. free throw attempts, etc.
And in Tim Duncan's mind, Kawhi Leonard has come a long way as a star in the league, but has yet to garner the star treatment other players of his stature receive from officials.
Duncan's reasoning, per the San Antonio Express-News' Jeff McDonald: Kawhi is too quiet to demand whistles.
"[Kawhi's] gotten to the point now where people are being a lot more physical with him, but people are still being allowed to get away with a whole lot of stuff," Duncan said. "That gets him fired up, and rightfully."
Pictured: "Fired up."
Speaking on Kawhi's quiet nature, Duncan admits that his longest conversation with the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year might've lasted as long as a quarter of a minute.
"I don't think it's ever surpassed 10 or 15 seconds," Duncan said, explaining that Leonard prefer to do his talking on the hardwood.
As for Kawhi, he's not worried about the increasing double-teams and contact he's drawing.
"I don't even think about it, really," Leonard said. "I'm not playing to get fouls."
He might not be playing for fouls, but an increase in Leonard's free throw attempts would be nothing but invaluable to San Antonio. Leonard averaged 4.1 free throws and 87.4 percent from the line during the regular season. He's got that facet locked down, whistles or not.
Then again, as we all know, solitude is kind of Kawhi's thing.
If he wants to talk, he'll talk. Until then, he'll keep his opponents in the soundproof torture chamber.
td: yo, looks like we favorites now
— alex (@steven_lebron) April 26, 2016
kawhi: ok
td: where u
kawhi: driving listening to pablo on mute pic.twitter.com/gOUnUNpDAv
Dan is on Twitter. Kawhi Leonard turns up to rain sticks.
