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NBA

‘The board man gets


paid’: An oral history of
Kawhi Leonard’s
college days

By Jayson Jenks (/author/jayson-jenks/) 51

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This is my new favorite quote: “The board man gets paid.”

According to former teammates, coaches and managers, Kawhi Leonard didn’t say
much during his two seasons (2009-11) at San Diego State. But he did say that, all
the time, and it is wonderful: “The board man gets paid.” It says so much about who
Leonard was and still is, and it absolutely belongs on a T-shirt.

This is the story about his two years at San Diego State, during which the Aztecs
went 59-12 and made the NCAA Tournament both seasons under coach Steve
Fisher.

Tim Shelton, forward: He was probably one of the hardest recruits that you’d
ever deal with who was that talented. (California’s Mr. Basketball in 2009.)
He wasn’t going to text you, he wasn’t going to pick up the phone and talk to
you. He just wouldn’t do it.

Justin Hutson, assistant coach: I wouldn’t say hard. I would say different.
You couldn’t get him on the phone. Once a week, I’d just have to go up there
to his high school (100 miles away in Riverside, Calif.), and I’d make sure he
was there first.

Shelton: And it’s part of why the Pac-12 teams didn’t put in extra effort.
They were like, “He’s kind of a four-man, and, shoot, we can’t call him and
talk to him. He must not want to talk to us.”

DJ Gay, guard: I took Kawhi on his official visit. Honestly, the only thing he
wanted to do was get in the gym. We were like, “Kawhi, what do you want to
do?” And he was like, “Let’s go work out. Let’s go get some shots up. Let’s
play.”

Shelton: We had open gym and were playing. We stopped in between games
and introduced ourselves as a team and just chopped it up a little bit more
with his mom than him. He introduced himself, “I’m Kawhi. Hey, what’s up.”
But if you tried to talk to him, he was like, “It’s cool, everything’s cool, so far

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it’s cool, it’s nice.” But then he just grabbed the ball and went to shoot. Even
during his visit, I’m telling you.

Gay: I think we started up our day playing two-on-two and finished our day
getting shots up. That’s just what he wanted to do. He wanted to work. I
honestly had no idea what to expect when he left. He didn’t say much. He just
wanted to hoop. I had no idea if we were getting him or not. I told coach
Fisher: “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you. He didn’t say much.”

Dave Velasquez, assistant coach: My favorite story about Kawhi is when he


got to San Diego State his freshman year. He had a math class at 8 a.m. and a
writing class at 10 a.m. It was Monday through Thursday, and it was really
tough. Our job was to make sure the freshmen were up for that 8 a.m. class.
So we were always knocking on their dorm room at 7:30. When we had to
find Kawhi for his 8 a.m. class, he was rebounding by himself.

Gay: By far the hardest worker I’ve ever come across, I’ve ever known.

Alex Jamerson, manager: I’ve never seen anyone, ever, work harder in my
whole life.

Jamerson: I would show up early to our arena to get things set up for practice.
I’m thinking, “Oh, I’m going to be the first guy in the arena just to get things
set up,” and I walk out to bring the balls out and he’s already got one or two
with him shooting in the dark in the arena. All by himself.

John Van Houten, manager: We used to have to break into the volleyball
gym.

Shelton: This was before they had all these swipe cards. We had just one key
that we would share to get into that gym. When you didn’t have the key
available, you could put the finger under the door at Peterson Gym, and if you

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knew how to wiggle it right, you could push the latch up and unlock the door.

Van Houten: At first, you could get in and you had access to the lights, you
had access to the hoops and everything was good. And then they started
cracking down, so we started breaking in, but the lightbox would be locked.

Shelton: So Kawhi had a lamp, and on different occasions, Kawhi would be


in there late and the lightbox would be locked, so he’d bring a lamp in there.
He’d put his finger under the door and unlatch it and he’d go in there and
shoot with just his lamp.

Van Houten: And that’s when they got a new locking mechanism on the
doors. And that’s when I got a key to an LDS church, a Mormon church, and
they had a full court. … He was gonna find a way to work.

Jason Deutchman, guard: We lost in the first round of the NCAA


Tournament my senior year on a Thursday. I took the rest of the weekend off
and then I was like, “I’m going to go start training on that Monday.” I
remember going in that very first night, three days after we had lost — and he
was already there.

Coach Velasquez: We had Saturday morning conditioning, so not only would


he be running hard and be in the front, but everybody else would go home
after. He would go to the gym.

Gay: There were several times I tried beating him in the gym, but no matter
how early I got there, he was already there. Or I tried to stay late, but it got to
the point that I just couldn’t do it anymore.

Coach Hutson: Knowing Kawhi, he probably just stayed until somebody left.
I’m serious.

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(Chris Carlson / AP)

Gay: The most he talked was on the hard court, and Kawhi was not afraid to
let you know that you weren’t going to score on him, that you couldn’t get past
him or that he would score on you. Every time the ball went through the net,
he just said, “Bucket. Bucket.” That was it.

Tyrone Shelley, guard: Most people say it like, “Oh, I’m about to get buckets
on you.” He was just like, “Buckets. Layup.” Just one word.

Shelton: He’d be like, “You’re not scoring. You’re not doing anything.” Or
he’d be like, “No, no, no.” He’d just move his feet and say, “No.”

Gay: You couldn’t score on him, so that’s what he would say: “Nope, nope,

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nope.” And when he would score on you: “Bucket. Bucket.”

LaBradford Franklin, guard: If he was grabbing a rebound, he’d say, “Give


me that” or “Board man” or “Board man gets paid.”

Coach Hutson: If I heard it once, I heard it 50 times. “Board man. I’m a


board man.” That’s what he said. Absolutely. “I’m a board man. Yeah, I’m a
board man. Board man gets paid.” He spoke in phrases like that.

Shelley: Instead of saying, “We need to walk to the store” or “Let’s go to the
store,” he’d just say, “I’m up.” When he leaves, he just says, “I’m up.”

Shelton: If he joked, it would be like one or two comments, and he’d go like,
“Yeeee.” He’d make more sounds than he actually talked.

Franklin: What stood out to me about Kawhi was everyone else wanted to
score or shoot threes, but he wanted to get every rebound. And one of the
quotes he always said was, “Board man gets paid.” The rebounder man, he
gets paid. And it’s true. He would say that every day. He would take pride in
that. If you think about it, defense and rebounding, those are the two things
you might not want to do. That’s not the pretty stuff. But he took pride in
that. He cared. (And led the Mountain West Conference in rebounding two
years in a row.)

Shelton: Guys coming from high school have trouble with help-side defense.
Kawhi made a comment to coach Hutson, who was the defensive coach at the
time, and he was like, “I don’t get it, coach. Why can’t they just stay in front of
their man like I do? Like, why do I have to play help side?” That was his only
comment I ever heard him make about defense: “They should just be able to
stay in front of their man like I do.”

Coach Hutson: We would talk about rotations and how to help. I would get
him on it about. He was respectful, but he would be very frustrated and say,
“Why can’t everybody just guard their own man?” Those were exactly his

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words. “Why can’t everybody just guard their own man?”

Kelvin Davis, guard: In his mind, everyone should be doing what he was
doing. But he didn’t realize everybody couldn’t do what he did. He was a
walking nightmare.

Gay: In practice, he would tell us, “Don’t help, I don’t need help, I got it, I
don’t need help.” That’s just how he was. That was his mentality. “I don’t need
help; why do you need help?” But then it made us better because it challenged
us: If Kawhi doesn’t need help, I don’t need help, either. And we turned out to
be one of the best defensive teams in all of America that year.

Shelton: He didn’t say much. But he would tell you if you were fouling him in
practice. He’d be like, “They fouling me, coach.”

Coach Velasquez: There’s one thing we always laugh about as a staff, and it
would always happen at practice. He would drive in there, and he’s big and
people would be hitting him all the time. At practice, you don’t really call that.
I can’t tell you how many times he would look over and go, “But they fouling
me. But they fouling me.”

“Kawhi, you’ve got to kick that.”

“But they fouling me.” It was over and over. In games, he wouldn’t really have
a lot of dialogue with refs, but you’d definitely hear, “but they fouling me,”
two or three times a game.

Shelley: There was no backtalk. Unless he was getting fouled.

Coach Hutson: There was a certain time I wanted everybody to lock and trail
in practice. I was very clear that there are times you don’t have to trail on the
baseline; there are times you can cheat the screen and shortcut and get there.
But right now we’re going to work on lock and trailing. I was very clear that
this was the way we were going to do it. And I remember Kawhi just takes his
own route. I made everybody run, and he was upset about it. He was

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definitely pissed about it. A man of few words, but every once in a while he
said something.

Van Houten: The coolest part about Kawhi: He plays mini hoop. In every
house I’ve ever been to, he always had a mini hoop. You can only play with
your left hand. You can’t play with your right hand. That’s a really cool thing
because he’s working on his game even when he’s just at the house.

Franklin: He had a Nerf goal on the back of the door in his apartment, and
he would just shoot. Friends would come over, playing 2K, and he would
challenge us to a free-throw contest.

Van Houten: He’d come over to my house and he’d watch Michael Jordan
highlights. We called them “Mike highs” … I mean, like four or five hours at
a time.

Coach Velasquez: We’d be done with the game and he’d be on his phone
watching Jordan on YouTube. Right away. He wasn’t texting. He was
watching Jordan on YouTube. He’d watch it all day, every day.

Shelton: You would see him watching that stuff. But he still wouldn’t talk
about it.

Coach Velasquez: Coach Fisher had a no-cellphone policy at team dinners,


but Kawhi would have his phone on his lap watching Jordan highlights. He
would really study his moves.

Franklin: On his phone, his background was Michael Jordan. … He would


always say, “I’m Mike. You like LeBron, you like Kobe? Yeah, they’re cool, but
I’m Mike. I want to be the best, the greatest.” And from how he carried
himself, we knew he was serious. We knew that’s what he really wanted.

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(Lenny Ignelzi / AP)

Van Houten: The only thing we’d give him shit for was his hands. Like,
“Damn, you make that iPhone plus look like an iPhone 5.” Or like, “Damn, it
should be a cheat code to play with those hands.”

Deutchman: There were definitely a few jokes about self-pleasure techniques.


(His hands) could be helpful or harmful, depending on your perspective. With
those, he could probably do a lot more damage with yourself if you get a little
too much into it, considering the size of your hands.

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Franklin: I’d always get on him about his braids. Like after a practice or after
a long road trip, we’re all sweating, and it would look like he just got out of
bed with his hair. But he didn’t care at all.

Gay: I used to call him an Avatar. A freakish Avatar, that’s what he was in
college. Long limbs, long body, could run like the wind.

Franklin: From what I can remember, if it wasn’t Michael Jordan highlights,


he was watching an episode of the Martin Lawrence show. He could be
entertained with that. He’s so low-maintenance. Low maintenance, high
production.

Shelley: I don’t remember him going to any parties except for one, and he was
just kind of off in the corner hanging out until we left.

Shelton: He would be with the team and kick it and party a little bit because
it was San Diego and we were winning. But he’d still be the first person up,
and he’d be in the gym shooting.

Gay: I used to tell him that I had an unblockable step-back. It took him a
while, but he finally started blocking my step-back. And that’s when I was
like, “This is just ridiculous.” I was just like, “Yeah, my time is over.”

Coach Velasquez: I’ll never forget when we played at Cal. He remembered


that Cal didn’t think he was good enough. He heard that the head coach at
the time, Mike Montgomery, didn’t think he was good enough. He made it
his personal mission to go out there and want to destroy Cal. They had a
really good team. Allen Crabbe was there. They had a squad. But Kawhi went
up there at Cal, and you knew when he walked on the floor that game, they
had no chance. It was ridiculous.

Shelton: We played at Fresno State against Paul George, and that was when
Paul George was getting some hype. I remember Kawhi watching his clips
and us doing the scouting report. Now, he never said anything that he was

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going to lock him up or that he wasn’t any good. He was just like, “OK.”

Franklin: We were playing against Jimmer and BYU in the tournament. He


screamed to coach Fisher, “Let me guard him.” At that time, Jimmer was
killing everybody in the country. He was Jimmer Fredette. Kawhi had no
business taking that challenge or saying that he was better than Jimmer then,
but he did it.

Coach Velasquez: (Coach Fisher) would always say, “Kawhi paid the bills.”
Kawhi rebounded. Kawhi was the best defender on the floor. Kawhi ran the
hardest in transition. Kawhi always did all the little things that helped your
team win.

Shelton: He says the most by his actions. He’s probably the only person that I
know, that I’ve met, that I’ve seen, that speaks that loudly through his actions.
People are like, “Kawhi’s quiet.” I’m like, “No, he’s not. Have you seen him
work? Have you seen the dude work out? Do you know what his routine is
over the summer?”

Van Houten: He always found a way. If he wants to become the greatest, he’s
going to find a way. If he wants to get in a gym and work out, he’s going to
find a way.

Franklin: To this day, I apply everything I learned from him. He was the
hardest worker. While we were going to class, he would hold his couple
papers for the class in his hand and in his backpack he had his sports gear: his
shoes, the ball. He was always in the gym. At night, in the day. You could
definitely learn from him. That work ethic can be applied to anything. That
was the most craziest thing I saw.

Coach Hutson: I was fortunate enough to be around a genius. He had a


genius work ethic.

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(Top photo: Harry How / Getty Images)

Jayson Jenks (/author/jayson-jenks/) is a features writer for the Athletic Seattle. Jayson
joined The Athletic after covering the Seahawks for four seasons for the Seattle Times. Follow
Jayson on Twitter @JaysonJenks (https://twitter.com/JaysonJenks).

51  COMMENTS

Add a comment...

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Anmol K. Jun 3, 11:25am 35 likes

Kawhi is a future HoF.

35

Rick M. Jun 3, 11:38am 58 likes

Wow what an awesome story. I can’t recall ESPN ever doing a story like this. I want someone in the media
to ask Kawhi about “The Board Man Gets Paid!”

58

Breanna S. Jun 3, 11:59am 39 likes

He's like Kobe with a Tim Duncan personality.

39

J S. Jun 3, 1:25pm 23 likes

Tim Duncan seems normal by comparison

23

Frankie C. Jun 3, 3:30pm 12 likes

He's better than Kobe, though

12

Scott E. Jun 3, 10:40pm 1 like

Tim Duncan would never have exited San Antonio the way Kawhi did.

Keep in mind I mostly sided with Kawhi. But still.

Andrew B. 3h ago

@J S. Tim Duncan seems flamboyant by comparison.

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