The Golden State Warriors news that’s making headlines is the fact they’ll play a second consecutive season without Klay Thompson due to a torn Achilles suffered just before the NBA draft, and now Stephen Curry is speaking out about the devastating “gut punch” it was to hear of his teammate’s injury diagnosis.
In an interview with The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears, Curry opened up about how emotional he became upon realizing Thompson wouldn’t be next to him in the backcourt for the upcoming 2020-21 NBA season.
Considering Curry and Thompson — aka the “Splash Brothers” — have emerged as the best shooting backcourt in NBA history as longtime cornerstones of the Warriors franchise, it’s hardly a surprise that Curry would have a visceral reaction to the bad news. Here’s the main bit of what Curry said to The Undefeated about Thompson’s Achilles injury:
“To get that call was a gut punch for sure. A lot of tears. You don’t really know what to say because a guy like that is having to go through two pretty serious rehabs now. But at the end of the day, we have to have his back. We hope that he is around and a part of what we do through his rehab and staying connected with us.”
Thompson sustained a torn ACL during the 2019 NBA Finals and was just getting back into form off that major injury. Unfortunately, he’s now dealing with another long-term setback that will definitely call into question whether or not Golden State’s dynasty of recent years can continue.
This isn’t the first time the Dubs have lost a superstar to an Achilles tear. It happened to Kevin Durant the game before Thompson blew out his knee. The fact that Thompson will have lost two years of his prime and has been with Golden State since the franchise drafted him in 2011 makes this sting even more, though.
