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KK_Bosna je napisao/la:al me pop momacki syeba na kladionici..

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KK_Bosna je napisao/la:al me pop momacki syeba na kladionici..

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He's the teenager who, while at San Diego State, brought two lamps from home for his early-morning workouts because the school wouldn't turn on the lights. He's the small forward who spent the night of the 2012 draft at the Spurs practice facility. Why is that relevant? Because the draft that year was held on June 28. Leonard's birthday -- his 21st -- was June 29. On a night most spend playing beer pong and swilling tequila, Leonard was polishing his midrange game. "He never wants to be in the limelight," Popovich says. "He's like Timmy: All he is worried about is getting better."

After his dad was killed, Leonard went to his room. "When we went to check on him," an uncle recalls, "he just said, 'I'm good.'"

The next day King had a game against Compton Dominguez, a big rival. "He didn't want to miss it," says Kim. "The court was his outlet." In the locker room before the game teammates quietly patted Leonard on the shoulder. "Most of us had never dealt with anything like that," says Jeremy Castleberry, Leonard's former teammate and best friend. "It was all so fresh." Leonard scored 17 points in a 68--60 loss. On his way off the floor he pivoted toward his mother and collapsed in her arms.

The case is still unsolved, and Leonard has said he doesn't want to know who did it. If anything, his father's death only intensified his focus on basketball.

The Spurs had a list of players they liked and an asset, backup guard George Hill, several teams coveted. But, says general manager R.C. Buford, there was only one player they would surrender Hill for: Leonard. He was still on the board when the Pacers, picking 15th, came up, and they wanted Hill. San Antonio had five minutes to decide. "We were scared to death," Popovich says. "For a while we were just staring at each other. It was an unbelievably tough call."

"Wanting to change your shot is persona," says Engelland. "A lot of players don't want to do it. Kawhi agreed right away."

For three days Leonard and Engelland ran drills focused on committing the revamped shot to muscle memory. Still, the lockout made Engelland nervous. With coaches barred from contact with players, Leonard was on his own. When the lockout ended, however, Engelland was shocked by how much Leonard had improved. "Making this kind of change, you get worse before you get better," says Engelland. "It's easy to get discouraged. But he stuck with it."

In camp the Spurs eased Leonard into his role. At first Popovich worried that Leonard would be burdened by the pressure of replacing a fan favorite like Hill. He wasn't. "I talked to him about what he might read in a story or hear on the radio," says Popovich. "Little did I know he wasn't interested in reading stories or listening to the radio."

Popovich pushed Leonard to be more aggressive, never harder than in the Finals against Miami. With the series knotted 1--1, Popovich sat his small forward down. Leonard had attempted just 14 shots in the first two games, and Popovich needed him to do more. Stop thinking out there, Popovich told him. Be aggressive. Play your game. "If he picked up a couple of quick fouls, his game would stop," says Popovich. "We needed him to get over that."

That same night Pop ran into Leonard and his mother at a restaurant. The coach draped his arm around Leonard and told him how much the team needed him. Kim told Popovich he needed to give Kawhi the green light. "I told her he's got it," says Popovich. The next three games Leonard averaged 23.7 points on 68.6 percent shooting.

YaSSaL je napisao/la:Ja bih Sixersima veceras pustio da pobijede...ko ce, ako mi necemo...

“You have a lot of bigs who play because they're big. Guards play because they love it. Timmy has a guard's mentality. He has a guard's passion for the game in a big body. That's why he's been so good.”

He's so serious about paintball that he owns his own custom-made guns. He's so into his cars that he opened a full-service customization shop literally around the corner from the Spurs' practice facility. He's so hooked on gaming that he lobbied one of his closest former teammates to name his son after a certain virtual-football empire.

Adds fellow former Spur Finley: "He invited the whole team out for paintball once, but I had never played. I called him to ask him what we have to wear. He said long pants and a long-sleeve shirt 'so it can protect you from the paint.' But he showed up in a tank top, shorts and knee pads. When I asked him why, he said: 'Well, I'm not gonna get hit.'