WARM RECEPTION FOR KAWHI?

SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs are content to simply forget Kawhi Leonards’ final season in a Spurs uniform happened and move on.

From head coach Gregg Popovich to the remaining longtime members of the Spur and to DeMar DeRozan himself, the hope from within

the locker-room is that Leonard gets a respectful response from the Spurs faithful Thursday night.

“I hope they react just as well and the same as with any other ex-teammate that comes back,” Mills said of his expected reaction. “He’s been a great teammate and

a great friend to me and he deserves that, so hoping it will be a warm welcome back to San Antonio where he’s won a championship and grew up here.”

Popovich suggested that has always been the way with San Antonio welcoming back one-time Spurs.

“I hope that they treat everybody with kindness and respect,” he said. “We always have in the past, so we’ll see.”

DeRozan, who was the main piece coming back in the Leonard trade seemed to be suggesting that winning an NBA title and a Finals MVP trumps all of the unrest created last year when Leonard took himself away from the team to rehabilitate an injury that cost him all but nine games of the schedule.

“At the end of the day, he won a championship here, was Finals MVP, some things that go on forever,” DeRozan said.