Getty Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors talks with Klay Thompson #11.
The first matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Klay Thompson will certainly be an emotional one.
But Thompson burst into tears of laughter, instead of sadness, when a viral meme imagining his first meeting against the Warriors as the dance showdown scene from the movie “You Got Served” caught his attention: “I’m crying!”
While Thompson is already making fun of his departure from the Warriors, his longtime teammate Stephen Curry still could not believe it happened.
“Not having Klay, man, it still hasn’t really sunk in,” Curry said in an interview with Yahoo Sports’ Vincent Goodwill on July 7. “Just because you’ve been doing it for 13 years together.”
Klay Thompson Felt Disrespected
A jilted Thompson left for the Dallas Mavericks via sign-and-trade with the help of the Warriors to get more than the midlevel exception. Still, the three-year, $50 million deal he signed with the Mavericks, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, was less in annual average salary than the Warriors’ initial offer last offseason which he declined.
Last season’s extension talks eroded Thompson’s relationship with the Warriors which led to his tumultuous final season with the franchise.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Thompson felt disrespected as the Warriors only offered him half of what Draymond Green received.
“Thompson was offered a two-year extension in the $50 million range by the Warriors before last season but passed on that pitch and is said to have come away from the offer feeling disrespected mere months after Green was re-signed to a four-year, $100 million pact,” Stein wrote in his Substack newsletter on June 29.
Joe Lacob: We’ll Have to Kick His Ass
While also emotional about the unfortunate ending of Thompson’s era in Golden State, Warriors owner Joe Lacob also tried to make the unfortunate situation light-hearted when he discussed it on “The Athletic NBA Show” on July 17.
“I don’t care what people think happened, or didn’t happen,” Lacob said. “He will always be welcome in my life. I hope he feels the same. Honestly, I get a little teary-eyed about it. I hope we’re going to be friends forever. And he’s just going to be in Dallas for a few years and we’ll have to kick his ass. But that’s just the job. And I’m sure he feels the same way. That’s called competition.”
Thompson’s exit signaled the end of an era that defined the last 10 years of the NBA. Thompson was part of the fabric, along with Stephen Curry and Green, of the Warriors dynasty that won four NBA championships.
“Bob Myers used to say this all the time. He’d say, it never ends well,” Lacob said. “It’s just unfortunate business. It’s just the way it is and things get in the way and circumstances prevail. And so it’s a very difficult process — his injury, the coming back from the injury, which he didn’t play for two and a half of the five-year contract and finally came back and really worked hard to get there. All I can tell you is we love him. We’re going to build a statue for this guy without question obviously when they’re all retired.”