June 3, 2014
SAN DIEGO - Former San Diego State men's basketball and San Antonio Spurs standout forward Kawhi Leonard will play in the NBA Finals for the second straight season beginning on Thursday, June 5. Game one is set for 6 p.m. PT on ABC, in San Antonio, Texas, where the Spurs will play host to the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat.
Leonard, a 2011 Associated Press Second-Team All-American while at SDSU, averaged 13.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.7 steals, while shooting 48.4 percent from the floor in a team-best 31.6 minutes in the playoffs en route to the Western Conference title.
This is the second consecutive year in which the Leonard-led Spurs will face the Heat for the right to lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy, which is awarded to the Finals winner. A season ago, Miami edged San Antonio, 4-3, in the best-of-seven series.
Leonard is the only player on either roster from a Mountain West institution and is joined by Juwan Howard as the only Finals participants with Steve Fisher ties. Howard played under Fisher while at Michigan and is currently one of two assistant coaches for player development for Miami.
On Monday, meanwhile, Leonard was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team for the first time of his career and became the seventh player in San Antonio franchise history to be voted to the team. The third-year player averaged a career-high 6.2 rebounds, 1.73 steals, which was 10th in the NBA, and 0.76 blocks in 66 regular-season games. His steals per game average was the highest by a Spurs player since 2003-04 (Manu Ginobili - 1.77).
Leonard, who garnered 89 points (16 first-team votes) from a voting panel of 123 writers and broadcasters from the U.S. and Canada, was joined on the second team by LeBron James (Miami Heat), Patrick Beverley (Houston Rockets), Jimmy Butler (Chicago Bulls) and Roy Hibbert (Indiana Pacers).