Kawhi Leonard blames media for Spurs fans booing him

Kawhi Leonard made his highly anticipated return to San Antonio as a member of the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night, and Spurs fans made sure to shower him with boos during pregame introductions. If not for the media, Leonard seems to think it wouldn’t have gone that way.

Following the Raptors’ 125-107 loss to San Antonio, Leonard said he knew he would be booed because of the way he has been portrayed in the media.

Kawhi found a scapegoat for all that booing that went on at the AT&T Center Thursday night: "Media does a great job to stir people’s minds and influence them to think a certain way. So I already knew that was going to be by the way the media was.”

— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) January 4, 2019

Without Leonard, the Spurs would not have won their championship in 2014. However, it sure seemed like he completely quit on the team last year because he wanted out. There are two sides to every story, and Leonard would probably argue that the Spurs were at fault for the way they handled his lingering quad injury. Perhaps he feels that the media did not cover that angle enough.

Whatever the case, it was clear by the way Spurs fans greeted one of Leonard’s teammates that they feel Kawhi handled himself poorly. He can blame the media all he wants, but he certainly bears some — if not all — of the responsibility.