Kawhi Leonard learning how to beat double teams from Charles Barkley

Kawhi Leonard wants to be a great player so Gregg Popovich put together a CD of Charles Barkley's highlights.

By Ananth Pandian

Nov 12, 2015 at 1:49 pm ET • 2 min read

As one of the hosts of TNT's Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley often says things that make you scratch your head and legitimately laugh out loud. He is often quite wrong in his actual basketball analysis but Barkley speaks his mind and believes what he says. Because of this, we tend to forget how great Barkley was as a basketball player.

Sure, he never won a championship, but Barkley is a Hall-of-Famer, a one-time MVP, an 11-time All-Star and made the All-NBA first team five times. In his prime, he was an absolute terror in the post, commanding double-teams despite his short stature for a power forward.

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had to coach against Barkley for a good portion of the Hall of Famer's career. And with Kawhi Leonard developing into a superstar, Popovich put together a CD of Barkley beating double teams for the Spurs forward to learn from.

From USA Today's Jeff Zillgit:

In an effort to help Kawhi Leonard become better as teams focus their defensive efforts against him, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich gave his star forward a CD with clips of Hall of Famer Charles Barkley handling and beating double teams.

“At this point, he’s just trying to figure out what to do when people come after him,” Popovich said. “He’s getting double teamed now, and that’s a whole different basketball game.”

“It’s my first time going through it,” Leonard said of the regular double teams. “It’s fun. You just go out there and try to compete and try to make a play for your teammates.”

When told Popovich put together a CD of his decision-making, Barkley was honored. “For Gregg Popovich to give a tape of me to Kawhi Leonard, that’s just awesome. It really is,” Barkley said. “I really appreciate that compliment.”

Leonard has likely been given advice on how to play in the post and beat double teams by his teammate Tim Duncan, who had to deal with defenses aimed at stopping just him during his career. But learning and watching clips of Barkley will likely help Leonard as well. Especially since defenses are now focusing in on him as he's taken a larger role offensively and is leading the Spurs in scoring with 22.1 points a game this season.

No wonder, Popovich is considered to be one of the best coaches in the NBA. He thinks outside the box and uses history to make the Spurs better.