Getty Klay Thompson walks off the court after his first career ejection.
Klay Thompson lost his cool against the Phoenix Suns, earning the first ejection of his 759-game career and then going viral for his parting taunt toward the Phoenix bench.
The Golden State Warriors star struggled in his team’s 134-105 loss on Tuesday and had a testy exchange of words with Booker in a heated third quarter. Thompson was hit with a pair of technical fouls during the commotion and sent to the locker room, getting another dig at Booker and the Suns on his way out.
Video Revealed Thompson’s Taunt
While it wasn’t exactly clear what sparked the war of words between Thompson and Booker, video from the TNT broadcast caught the Warriors star taunting Booker and the Phoenix bench after the incident. Using some choice language, Thompson let his opponents know that he has four championship rings to their none.
Klay got ejected after things got chippy with him and D-Book.
The dig seemed to reference the disappointing season the Suns suffered last year. After finishing the season 64-18 to lock up the No. 1 overall seed in the Western Conference and the best record in the NBA, the Suns failed to live up to their status as title favorites. They were eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks in the divisional round, while the Warriors rolled through the playoffs and to their fourth title in eight years.
Video of Thompson’s fiery taunt caught some viral attention, overshadowing what was Golden State’s worst loss of the young season. The Warriors gave up 70 or more first-half points for the third consecutive game, a franchise record.
Thompson may have struggled the most, making just one of his eight shots and missing all five from behind the 3-point line. He ended the game with just two points and two assists with three turnovers.
Klay let Book know 👀
(h/t @warriorsworld)
After Tuesday’s game, Booker said there was no animosity between him and Thompson.
“I love Klay Thompson, and I have from the beginning,” Booker said. “From the draft, I said I wanted to be like Klay Thompson. That doesn’t excuse us from talking trash … big fan of his.”
Thompson Frustrated Even Before Game
After losing more than two-and-a-half years to back-to-back major injuries, Thompson returned for the second half of last year’s NBA title-winning season and the team is making sure not to rush his start this year. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr admitted before Tuesday’s game that Thompson had been frustrated with the minute restriction the team had placed to ensure he had a smooth and healthy start to the season.
“He’d like to have his minutes bumped up,” Kerr said, via the San Francisco Chronicle. “But the reality is as you get a little older as a player, when you’ve had some injuries, you have to be a little more patient. You have to be on top of everything all year long and you have to be careful. We’re not going to mess around with that.”
Thompson also admitted that it was hard for him to accept the lesser role, even though he understood the reasoning behind it.
“I’m such a perfectionist, I want to be great right now,” Thompson said. “But I got to realize, man, it’s a long season. I’d rather peak come playoff time rather than early November or into January.”
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Video Shows Warrior Klay Thompson’s Viral Taunt After 1st Career Ejection