Fascination with Spurs’ Leonard helps teacher relate to students

Every game the Spurs play in the playoffs, there is a group of fourth graders glued to their television sets.

If the Spurs win, they don’t have to do any homework the following night.

That’s the rule in Erin Griffin’s classroom at Blattman Elementary school on the North Side of San Antonio. Griffin is a self-proclaimed Kawhi Leonard super fan, and over the course of the year, she has managed to convert many of her 9 and 10-year-old students into Spurs’ devotees.

Her classroom is decorated with Leonard regalia. There’s a cardboard cutout of his head on a lamp, a poster with photos of him on the wall and a full-bodied cutout of him dribbling hanging from the ceiling.

About 50 days over the course of the school year, her students stay in her classroom during lunch to watch Leonard’s highlight reels. It’s considered a special reward for birthdays and good behavior.

Griffin, 34, said she looks up to Leonard and wants her students to view him as a role model because he’s a great example of someone who is humble and works hard.

“When they start bragging, I bring up Kawhi, how humble he is,” Griffin said. “I think that’s why I like him so much. He carries himself so well, he doesn’t brag. He’s not so full of himself. He doesn’t act like he’s all this or all that. That’s a quality you don’t find too often.”

Griffin has been known to pull students aside if they want to give up and are feeling down on themselves, and use Leonard as a teaching moment.

“He went to a (Division I) school, but not a big D-1 school, and look at him now,” Griffin said of Leonard’s time at San Diego State. “He’s one of he top, if not the best, NBA player in the league. You work hard, and it will pay off.”

Griffin watches as many Spurs games as she can throughout the year with her own children, ages 10, 4, and 2. Her middle child, a boy, actually shares the same birthday as Leonard, June 29.

Griffin played basketball at Clark High and St. Mary’s University before graduating in 2005 with a degree in education.

While many people were initially baffled and disappointed when Leonard came to the Spurs in a 2011 draft-day trade for George Hill, she said she knew right away the Spurs had a gem.

“I said, he’s going to be really good y’all,” Griffin said. “No one listened to me. I’m like, hmm, now you want to jump on the bandwagon.”

Griffin, in her fourth year at Blattman, was named Teacher of the Year in March.

Her colleagues, who voted for her to receive the award, honored Griffin with a two-sided poster covered with cutout photos of Leonard. The front of the poster reads: “I’m #2, but you are #1! Congrats to Erin Griffin, Blattman Elementary Teacher MVP.”

Over Christmas, some of her students gave her Leonard jerseys as gifts. One of her colleagues took her to a game this year.

Griffin’s teaching curriculum is filled with Leonard references. Math problems often incorporate his name. Her students practice letter writing with personalized letters to Leonard.

In one of those letters, a student made a plea for him to visit the classroom, writing, “I’m pretty sure that if we had a choice and voted, we would get 20 out of 20 wanting you to read to us rather than Stephen Curry.”

Griffin said that her appreciation of Leonard is an effective tool for her to connect with her students.

She said it gives them something to root for together, something to joke about, something to share.

“If you can talk to them on their level, something that you guys have in common, you can connect and reach them,” Griffin said.