The San Antonio Spurs are doing away with the final remnant of the Fun Guy era.
San Antonio made a major blockbuster trade over the weekend for Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox. They acquired Fox as part of a three-team trade with the Chicago Bulls, who sent Zach LaVine to Sacramento in return (full details here).
The Spurs have also already decided on Fox’s jersey number for them. Don Harris of WOAI-TV in San Antonio reports that Fox will be wearing the No. 2 jersey in San Antonio. That number has not been worn by the Spurs since 2018 when it belonged to … Kawhi Leonard.
San Antonio’s move to give away Leonard’s old jersey number sparked plenty of debate online. Many pointed to the success that Leonard brought to the team during his time with them from 2011-18. He helped lead to the Spurs to their most recent NBA championship in 2014 as the Finals MVP that season and was also a multi-time All-Star and multi-time Defensive Player of the Year Award winner while in San Antonio.
But Spurs fans likely won’t be too upset about the move because of how messy Leonard’s divorce from the team was. The ugly saga, centered around a disagreement between Leonard and the Spurs on a 2018 quad injury that he sustained, saw Leonard lose his trust in the organization and request for a trade. There were even claims that Leonard supposedly hid his rehab from the Spurs, and he was eventually shipped to the Toronto Raptors before the 2018-19 season.
Now with the LA Clippers, Leonard still gets booed every time he returns to San Antonio, including a surreal scene last season where Gregg Popovich interrupted a game to admonish the Spurs’ fans for booing.
Leonard’s contributions to the Spurs speak for themselves, and plenty of people believe that the team should have kept his No. 2 jersey in unofficial retirement, even if they had no plans to ever formally honor Leonard. But with Fox’s longtime No. 5 jersey currently belonging to Spurs rookie guard Stephon Castle, the team is happy to bestow the No. 2 on their new All-Star guard who should be around in San Antonio for a long time to come.
