SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors rolled out a welcome for Klay Thompson that was perhaps unprecedented for a former player who chose to leave a franchise.
“(For) one who hangs four championship banners and does it in a way that captures the hearts of fans,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
Thompson’s return to the Bay Area for the first time as a member of the opposing organization is here, with his Dallas Mavericks set to play the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday at Chase Center. The Warriors passed out white captain hats to all fans in attendance to celebrate an original Splash Bro who used to drive his boat to home games.
The hats were out in full force nearly 2 1/2 hours before tip-off when dozens of Warriors employees wore them while greeting Thompson as he got off the Mavericks’ bus.
Cheers could be heard from outside the building and again when Thompson walked through the loading dock and into the visitors’ locker room. He smiled, nodded and placed his hands together in appreciation of the gesture.
Klay Thompson arrives at Chase Center to a line of 400 employees in captain hats pic.twitter.com/hAtHSspAJu
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) November 13, 2024
A video tribute is planned for before the game, and Stephen Curry was supposed to address the crowd after the video, but the speech was canceled after Thompson and Curry conferred about it Monday night.
Still, the outpouring of love and support for Thompson in San Francisco doesn’t seem to fit for a relationship that ended in divorce. That’s what happened after Thompson, 34, joined the Mavs on a three-year, $50 million contract as part of a six-team sign-and-trade deal over the summer after his relationship with the Warriors faded last season.
“In the end, I think he made the right choice,” Kerr said. “I think he needed a fresh start. I think he needed a kind of a new set of surroundings. And I think that was apparent last year. He was not happy. And that was hard to see because he deserves to be happy.”
Thompson made five All-Star appearances and six NBA Finals trips with Golden State, missed two years due to devastating leg injuries that stemmed from a torn ACL during the 2019 finals and was a pillar of the Warriors’ dynasty with Curry and Draymond Green. Thompson set an NBA record with 37 points in a quarter in 2015, set a record with 14 3s in a game in 2018 and scored a career-best 60 points in a game in 2016.
Thompson still averaged 17.9 points on 38.7 percent shooting from 3-point range last season but fell out of the starting lineup. He was not on the floor in crucial moments at the end of games as the year wore on, which led him to choose free agency over negotiating a new deal with Golden State.
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Thompson declined to speak to reporters Tuesday morning. When he last spoke publicly, after Dallas’ loss Sunday to Denver, he said facing the Warriors for the first time would be “just another regular-season game in November.”
If you believe that, well, the Golden Gate Bridge is for sale.
“We all try to downplay what we’re going into, especially playing against our former teams,” said Thompson’s Mavericks teammate Kyrie Irving, who knows a thing or two about reunion games. “But as competitors, we all feel it. It’s emotions that are high end, but it’s basketball at the end of the day. (There are) a lot of things that happen behind the scenes no one will ever know about but (Thompson) was still ultra, ultra successful here. And I just want it to be a warm reception for him and all of us.”
Thompson is averaging 13.8 points and shooting 35.4 percent from 3-point range in 10 games — all starts — alongside Irving and perennial MVP candidate Luka Dončić this season.
“I think he’s happy (now),” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “As an athlete, your career has a start and has an end. And as you get older you get closer to the end. That’s just the nature of being an athlete. And so for Klay, I think he’s happy. Sometimes change is better for both sides. Both sides win — Klay wins, the Warriors win and you move forward.”
This story will be updated.
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(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)
