The San Antonio Spurs have maintained their stronghold amongst the Western Conference elite despite the absence of superstar forward Kawhi Leonard to start the 2017-18 NBA season. One of the reasons has been the solid play of veteran forward Rudy Gay.
However, Gay's seamless fit with the Spurs thus far did not come without a bit of a transitioning period. After years of floundering with some of the NBA's lower-tier teams, the veteran forward had to get back into a winning mindset, according to Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports:
“It’s a situation where, you have to pay a lot of attention to detail and it’s a winning mentality. That’s something I was away from, for so long, you kind of create bad habits. I’ve had to re-teach myself. And I’ve had to continue to do it every day,” Gay said. “It’s great. Everybody helps each other. Everybody is held accountable. Everybody is on the same page. Everybody has one thing in mind, and that’s win. I wanted to be a part of that.”
Gay spent the last three seasons as the primary contributor to a still-struggling Sacramento Kings franchise. Prior to that, he had spent years mostly nursing a rash of injuries with three different teams.
He now finds himself with one of the most elite franchises in the league where the expectations are sky-high each and every year. Needless to say, the standards are certainly not going to change for Gay or even the looming return of Leonard for that matter. All things considered, it will be interesting to see how his role changes once the superstar returns against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
