Leonard Taken 15th Overall in 2011 NBA Draft
Former SDSU forward Kawhi Leonard was selected by the Indiana Pacers and then traded to the San Antonio Spurs.
As a result, Leonard finds himself on a team that went 61-21 last season en route to its eighth division title in the last 13 seasons. The Spurs, which have won the NBA championship four times since 1999, have made the playoffs each of the last 14 seasons.
Draft details
Leonard is the 18th NBA draft pick in school history and the 13th for head coach Steve Fisher. He is also the first player to hear his name called at the annual draft for both SDSU and Fisher, since Randy Holcomb was selected in the second round with the 57th overall pick by the San Antonio Spurs in 2002.
For SDSU, Leonard is the second first-round NBA draft pick in program history and first since Michael Cage was taken 14th by the Los Angeles Clippers in 1984.
As for Fisher, Leonard is the ninth player he has helped earn NBA first-round status and first since Maurice Taylor was the 14th overall pick in the 1997 Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers after playing his college ball at Michigan.
About Kawhi Leonard
In two seasons on Montezuma Mesa, Leonard averaged 14.1 points and 10.2 rebounds, including a career-best 15.5 points and 10.6 rebounds (9th in NCAA) in 2010-11 as a sophomore. He scored 990 career points, which is the 19th-highest total in SDSU Division-I history, and grabbed 716 rebounds, which ranks seventh all-time in SDSU history and is the fifth most in the program’s D-I history.
A double-double machine, the Riverside, Calif., native had 40 double-doubles in 70 career games (69 career starts), including 23 in 2010-11. His 40 double-doubles is the second most in school history behind Cage’s 60 (1981-84). His 23 last season, meanwhile, ranked fourth in the NCAA and is tied with Cage (1984) for the most in a single season.
Leonard posted 57 double-figure scoring performances, including 13 20-point efforts and 42 double-digit rebounding performances in his Aztec career. Last season alone, Leonard produced 33 games with 10 points or more and grabbed a minimum of 10 rebounds 23 different times. The forward also led the team in scoring 27 times in his career, in rebounding 44 times and in assists 16 times.
As a freshman, Leonard became the only freshman in the 11-year history of the Mountain West Conference to earn conference player-of-the-week accolades three times. When the season ended, Leonard was the MWC tournament most valuable player, the first freshman in league history to be named to the all-MWC first team and was the MWC freshman of the year.
The 6-7 forward was also named to Sporting News’ all-freshman second team and the NABC’s all-District 17 squad.
This past season, Leonard was one of 10 players selected to the Wooden Award All-America team, was a second-team All-American by the Associated Press, Sporting News and FoxSports.com, and was a State Farm Coaches’ third-team All-American. Leonard was also one of 10 candidates up for the Naismith Award and one of 20 eligible for the Wooden Award.
On a regional and conference level, Leonard was named to the NABC all-District 17 and the USBWA all-District IX squads, while earning all-MWC first team, MWC all-tournament and all-MWC defensive team accolades. In addition, the sophomore was a two-time MWC player of the week and the CBE Classic Oxford Subregional MVP.
