SPURS - EVOLUTION OF KAWHI LEONARD

It was buried near the bottom of a summertime question-and-answer session with Spurs fans after his rookie season, but like most things that come out of Gregg Popovich's mouth, Kawhi Leonard heard every word.

Popovich didn't just praise the rangy forward on his rookie season, he said he thought he'd be the "face of the Spurs" one day.

Popovich is actually way more complimentary of his players than his gruff sideline interviews might suggest, but this was a whopper.

Face of the Spurs?

No matter where that quote was published, it was getting back to Leonard.

"Yeah, I heard it," Leonard said after harassing LeBron James on the defensive end and scoring 14 points of his own on 6-for-10 shooting in the Spurs blowout 113-77 victory over Miami in Game 3 of the NBA Finals Tuesday night.

"But it doesn't mean anything to me right now. I'm a role player and we're competing for a championship this year. Whatever unfolds in the years to come is what happens."

By now, Leonard is used to saying he's a role player. It's what Spurs do. Their roles are set, they do not question them, they accept them gladly.

Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are the stars of this franchise. The Spurs universe revolves around the three players who have carried them to sustained excellence for more than a decade.

But one thing is becoming pretty clear during these Finals: Leonard isn't going to be cast into a role like this for much longer. He's a big part of their present, but he's an even bigger part of their future.

And you know what? He wants it.

"That's why I play the game. I want to be great one day," Leonard said. "I work so hard just to get better. Hopefully the cards unfold right so I can be the face ...

He stops a moment before finishing the thought, remembering his place and how good Spurs talk and finishes with a much more selfless thought, which he actually means just as earnestly, "No, I don't even think about it like that [being the face of the Spurs]. Just being better as a player myself."

When they go well, that's how these stories all go.

An organization makes a bet on a player with a high ceiling like Leonard, he turns out to have the work ethic, attitude and ability to live up to it and eventually he busts out on a stage like this and the future becomes now.

"Some guys are affected by the lights and some guys aren't," Popovich said of Leonard. "We haven't done anything to make him the way he is; he already is like that. He's quiet, he's humble, he wants to be a great player and he works before and after practice every day.

"So what you're seeing out there [in the Finals] is just a part of his personality. He just comes to play."

During these Finals he's been making James' life difficult. Yes, it's the Spurs' team defense that's forced James to pass far more than he should be. But it's Leonard who has been doing the heavy lifting.

"Honestly, I don't think I'm doing that good of a job on him," Leonard said. "He's still making baskets in a row when he's being aggressive. When I'm in the game, I'm just trying to contest all his shots, not give him anything easy because he's going to make shots.

"I just buy into my team. Whatever the coaches tell me the player does, I trust them and play the game."

A very Spursian answer.

So, too, has been his play.

But it's not just at the defensive end where he's contributed in these Finals. After his 14 points, 12 rebounds and four steals in Tuesday's win, Leonard is averaging 11 points, 12 rebounds and two steals during these Finals.

Those aren't role player statistics.

"I am," Leonard said when asked if he still saw himself as a role player. "I'm not getting no plays called for me out on the floor. I'm not getting no isos. So I'm a role player. I'm playing off of Tim, Tony and Manu, the players [that] get isos.

"I'm just going out there playing."

True. The Spurs still belong to Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. But here's guessing Leonard's time isn't too far off.

ED LUCAS - 10yrs BEFORE HE GOT CALLED UP

When he graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004, Ed Lucas announced to his baseball coach that he didn't want to be one of those 30 year olds still hanging on in the minors, "just playing to play."

This year marked Lucas' 10th in professional baseball, and in those previous nine seasons he had never played a single major-league game.

While his Ivy League teammates headed to Wall Street, boutique law firms and even major-league front offices, Lucas went on commercial flights in the morning and long bus trips at night. He was good enough to keep a uniform – a .399 career slugging percentage and a great arm, necessary for all left-side infielders – but not quite good enough to get "the call." He'd become his own worst nightmare: 31 years old and still playing minor-league ball.

He had logged time in Idaho Falls; Burlington, Iowa; High Desert, Calif; Wichita; Springdale, Ark.; Omaha; Lawrenceville, Ga.; Jackson, Miss.; Salt Lake City and New Orleans.

"I've been everywhere," Lucas says.

And nowhere.

"Baseball has a way of telling you when you're done, not the other way around," says his old Dartmouth coach, Bob Whalen, "so play as long as you can."

Baseball hadn't quite told him emphatically that he was done. After spending time with the Royals, Angels and Braves organizations, the Marlins signed Lucas last December.

Then, at the end of another May in another remote corner of nowhere, Ed was warming up for his 925th minor-league game and his 3,732nd at-bat when his New Orleans manager walked to the outfield and told the team to gather around.

"It's my pleasure to announce Ed Lucas has been called up," he told them.

The team flew together in high-fives and hugs, and Lucas felt "hot" – the physical feeling when all your emotions rush together and gather at the fringes of your skin.

"It was an odd emotion – very tough to explain," he says. "I was excited. I was happy. There was a lot of relief involved. It's the validation of the past decade of my life.

"Every day you wake up and make decisions about how you're going to live your life that day. I've been doing it the same way for 10 years. A very big relief to see it come together."

Suddenly Lucas was the first Dartmouth grad since 1991 (Brad Ausmus) to appear on a major-league roster. Suddenly he was putting on a Miami Marlins uniform and trotting out under the lights of arguably the most modern baseball stadium ever built. Suddenly Lucas was standing in the batter's box, facing Fernando Rodney and taking his first big-league pitch.

It had to be the most special Strike 1 of the 2013 season.

Lucas grounded out. In doing so, he joined a truly special fraternity of major-leaguers. Few have made it to the very top of the sport, and far fewer would have kept going through all the long nights of crappy hotels, fast-food meals and middle seats in turbulence.

But after that ground out, Lucas made sure he was no Moonlight Graham – tapping one nubber to the mound and then vanishing from the game forever. He logged six hits in his first 10 at-bats as a Marlin, four of those hits coming in Sunday's win over the Mets. The guy is not looking like a career minor-leaguer.

On Monday night, in a phone call from Philadelphia, where the Marlins are playing, Holly asked the question she's asked hundreds of times before, "How's everything?"

The question hit Lucas with unexpected force.

"I realized something for the first time," he says. "Minor-league baseball players are the best complainers you'll ever meet. We can find the worst-case scenario in every situation. There was absolutely nothing I could possibly complain about. Everything was harmonious."

Lucas made sure to say a special thank you to Holly and his agent, for encouraging him. But there was also something else at play – something unique to the sport.

"The great thing about baseball and baseball players is the hopefulness," he says. "You have to have it in this game of failure such as ours. If you somehow hit .330 this season, the majors are always there. One step away."

Ed Lucas took 10 years to make that one step, from sad tale to inspiration. After all those departures from musty terminals and bus stations, a major-leaguer has arrived.

SPURS - TOM THIBODEAU

"The Spurs are the Spurs," Thibodeau said. "In many ways, they're the gold standard of the league. They've done it year after year for a long time. They have a lot of weapons. But we'll worry about that when we get there."

While discussing San Antonio before Wednesday night's game, it became even clearer just how much Thibodeau respects San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich and his team.

"Ever since Pop's been here, he's built a championship caliber team and organization from top to bottom," Thibodeau said. "In everything they do. To me, when you measure greatness, it's having the ability to do it year after year and he's shown that. So I have a lot of respect for what he's done."

On the other side of the arena, Popovich echoed similar sentiments toward Thibodeau and his team minutes later. He praised the job that Thibodeau has done in his second season and acknowledged that even he wasn't sure why it took the career assistant coach so long to land his first head job.

"I'm not the answer man," Popovich said. "I don't know. Most of what we all do, even in your business, it doesn't matter what; a lot what happens has to do with circumstances more than how well you did. Or how highly your regarded or not. If anybody looks at their career, no matter what field of endeavor, circumstances have a lot to do with everything that's happened to each one of us. Sometimes holding us back, sometimes moving us forward. And each person has his own path. What's good is that Tom got his chance. With a good organization and a good group of guys. And he and his staff have been magnificent."

For his part, Thibodeau is just hoping to create the same kind of long-term success in Chicago that Popovich has built up over his time in Texas. He likes the style the Spurs have created over time and he appreciates that Popovich has done things his own way.

"It's the way they're built," Thibodeau said. "They have everything covered. They hard playing [guys], smart, tough, they can shoot. They fit. They're team oriented. They sacrifice for each other They play for each other. They've had injuries; when one guy goes down, the next guy steps up. Pop has provided great leadership here for a long time."

SPURS - AMERICANS vs INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS

I always figured the Spurs’ large contingent of international players – Tim Duncan (U.S. Islands), Tony Parker (France), Manu Ginobili (Argentina), Tiago Splitter (Brazil), Boris Diaw (France), Cory Joseph (Canada), Nando De Colo (France), Patty Mills (Australia) and Aron Baynes (Australia) – was the product of three main reasons.

1. Scouting. San Antonio does an excellent job of scouting overseas, which gives the Spurs an edge when it comes to drafting international players who stick in the NBA.

2. Chance. Tony Parker was the best player available when the Spurs’ pick came up in the 2001 draft, but if he had gone one spot earlier, they might have drafted Jamaal Tinsley or Gilbert Arenas instead. Similar situations came into play when San Antonio acquired its other international players.

There’s actually a more-calculated reason. The Spurs prefer international players to American ones. Seth Wickersham of ESPN:

Consider Pop’s brutal assessment that foreign players are “fundamentally harder working than most American kids,” and it’s no wonder the Spurs want to avoid the fate of so many NBA teams

A few months ago, Pop was scouting an opponent. He won’t say which one. On video, Pop saw an international player wide open for a shot, with a confused look on his face. That’s because his point guard, an American, was dribbling in circles. “It has to be a really different experience for him,” Pop says, laughing. “ ’Where am I? Is this is a different game? Is it a different sport?’ ”

Criticism of AAU basketball, which Spurs general manager R.C. Buford engages in, is often heavy-handed and exaggerated. I’ve seen firsthand plenty of America’s top young players sacrifice their individual games to play within a team concept.

But it’s hard to question the culture the Spurs have created, and to their credit, they’ve drafted Kawhi Leonard and given Danny Green multiple chances. There’s a happy medium somewhere, and San Antonio has probably found it.

SPURS - THEY DO MORE WITH LESS

Let's add to the list of reasons why the Spurs are amazing: They do more with less.

One way to gauge how NBA front offices evaluate talent is revisiting where players were selected in the NBA Draft. The average pick of each NBA team's five leading scorers this season was 19.1. San Antonio's was 32—lower than only two teams. In fact, there are just three NBA champions in the last three decades with lower average draft picks than these Spurs: the 2005 Spurs, the 2003 Spurs and the 1999 Spurs.

San Antonio was gifted the No. 1 pick in 1997, when it took Tim Duncan and never let him leave. But his sidekicks over the years—and some of the Spurs stars this season—are players that far too many teams passed over. Tony Parker (2001) and Tiago Splitter (2007) were both picked 28th. Kawhi Leonard was 15th in 2011. Danny Green, who shot 5-for-5 from three-point range on Sunday, entered the league as a second-round pick (46th) in 2009. And there is Manu Ginobili, the 1999 draft's 57th pick, behind 11 guys who never played in the NBA.

GENO AURIEMMA INTERVIEW

Discuss your coaching philosophy and the secret to your success at Connecticut...
It's go out and recruit the best players in the country, get them to come to UConn, coach the hell out of them, make sure they become college All-Americans and win national championships.

If a young first year coach is seeking your advice on how to begin building a winning program what would you tell them...
If I was starting, I would start by recruiting the kind of kids I want to coach, not the kind of kids that would help me win.  I wouldn't make any concessions and recruit players that I thought could get me in trouble but could help us win.  So I would not sacrifice winning for the building blocks of the program.

I'm not saying that would work for everybody but that is how we did it at UConn.  When I started here it took us six years to sign a high school All-American.  In those six years, we won a lot of games and won championships, but we did it with solid building blocks as opposed to having to compromise the kind of people for the expectation of winning.

What is your motivation after 28 years...
28yrs later, I don't feel like I have to prove anything to anybody except my players.  I have to prove to my players that I'm as good as I told them I was when I was recruiting them and I have to prove to my players that I can help them get better.  I can help you get better, win championships, and I can help you become the kind of player you want to be.  Proving that to my players is my motivation.

COACH K - A TEAM WORTHY OF WINNING IT ALL

As Duke basketball heads into its offseason, The Chronicle's Andrew Beaton went one-on-one with head coach Mike Krzyzewski to discuss this team's 2012-13 season and what lies on the horizon for the Blue Devils.

The Chronicle: All season everybody talked about how good the chemistry was. What was it about this team that made it that way?

Mike Krzyzewski: It doesn’t happen all the time, obviously. It doesn’t mean that something bad was happening, but when it happens like this year it’s great. Everybody involved loved this year.

I think the fans loved it because they could see us loving it. I believe it happens because everybody takes ownership. They’re only concern is our place, not their place, and that’s what our group had. I believe the players had that as a result of the leadership of our three seniors.

Our three seniors are really studs. Two of them played hurt. One of them started last spring and said, ‘I’m going to change who I am, I’m going to go for it, I’m going to be with you every step of the way.’ Mason did that every day. Seth’s commitment—everybody knew the extent of his injury. Ryan, while he was hurt and then to come back—at whatever percentage, but much less than 100 percent—and be so cooperative set the tone.

As a coach, if you are constantly giving and not getting back emotional energy, you wear out. We were never worn out because our team, as much as we gave the team, the team gave back.

It was a team worthy of winning 30 games, it was a team worthy of winning the whole thing. A lot of times you can have that and not win the whole thing because the whole thing is very difficult. The only way I could be happier is if we won the whole thing. But I’m not sad about that. I loved my team.

TC: Had you ever been through anything injuries the way this team was?

MK: We don’t publicize our injuries. I’ve never done that because it goes back to my military days where one of your answers was, ‘No excuse, sir.’ In other words, you line up and you go.

You start putting everything out all the time or on a daily basis—every once in a while I’ll talk about Seth’s injury because I wanted people to understand the commitment he was making. I’ve never had a kid going through something like that. For him to have the year he had, are you kidding me?

TC: Seventeen points per game, second in the ACC.

MK: I do imagine this: what would have happened—what could have happened if he was healthy the whole year, individually. He could have led country in scoring. But in saying that, I’m not saying if we had those two guys we’d win. I do think if he had the surgery or has an injury or Ryan doesn’t come back. We might not be an NCAA team. We went through the whole year worrying about that, even if the whole world doesn’t worry about that. We’re also happy because our guys gave it all.

TC: Did that toughness remind you of an old school Duke basketball team?

MK: It was more of an old-school Duke basketball team because you had the ability to be old school. I don’t see how you can be old school unless you have people who have gone through the experiences. Old school is about going through things for a longer period of time.

When you have senior leadership, and those guys have been through it—all three of those guys from their freshman year, none of them had a prominent role. Seth didn’t play, Ryan because of sitting out, and Mason had the biggest role but certainly wasn’t in the top five. And Ryan was way down the ladder in that. So they were able to experience the program in a growth process—basically working in the mail room to being the top executive. You’re more apt to be old school because they’ve experience all of that, and it can help the guys going through those experiences now much better.

TC: Do you see the same potential for that next year with not only Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton, but also Andre Dawkins returning to the team?

MK: Well you would hope that the experiences that those three guys have had would equate to help for everybody. The one thing is that our three best players were our three seniors this past year. Next year, our three best players will not be those three guys. They can be key players, they can start. One or two of them might start.

This year, you not only had them being seniors but they were the best players and the most important players. That dynamic will be a little bit different.

TC: For those returning guys, what are the most important things for them to be focusing on this summer as they transition?

MK: For the returning players, it’s all about individual improvement during the off season—what they have to do to change their bodies or keep their bodies at a certain level, the skill work they need to practice on and the maturity that needs to be developed. And then the maturity that needs to be developed: what did you learn and how are you going to change that into being a more mature player.

Our team was very mature this year. To me, that will be one of the biggest things about next year’s team. Can we have a high level of maturity? But that means you keep your eyes focused on what we are all doing and not getting sidetracked by what you’re doing.

Maturity equates to a team vision much more so than individual vision. Your individual vision should be incorporated into the team vision. We talk to our guys about that. When reality sets in and you’re the ninth man now, and you thought it would be really good and it’s not going as well, or the role you anticipated someone has and now it’s something different and now you have to adapt. Those are mature things.

When we’ve had a team worthy of winning, that’s what we’ve had. Our seniors, the four years that they participated, they were on two teams that were worthy of winning. One we did win and then this past year. Their sophomore year, we weren’t cohesive enough because of the injury problem to Kyrie to show that we were worthy, but we were close. Their junior year, we were worthy of losing in the first round, and we got what we were worthy of.

TC: So when you do have another team that wins a national championship, are you getting a tattoo?

MK: I will never get a tattoo. I promise you. Even if I promised my team that—I don’t like to break promises—but that will never happen. A tattoo on a 60-year old, on my body, would not be a pleasant sight. So that’s not going to happen.