Klay Thompson on Tuesday exited the team bus then beamed as he strolled back into Chase Center, greeted by about 400 cheering Warriors employees who lined up along his path to the Dallas Mavericks locker room to show their love and appreciation for the former Golden State star.
Once the ball was tipped a couple of hours later, Thompson tried to pull off an impromptu shimmy, Stephen Curry-style, as the former Splash Brothers dueled in different uniforms.
The employees who greeted Thompson sported “Captain Klay” hats, the giveaway for all fans on a celebratory night remembering his 13 years with the franchise and four championships he helped win.
Photo: Cary Edmondson / Imagn Images
“That was really cool,” Thompson said. “I’m very grateful for the employees to give me that kind of love ... totally unexpected and definitely put a smile on my face. Something I’ll never forget.”
Those white hats filled Chase Center, where video highlights of Thompson showed in a place where he is still beloved — and always will be. Curry jogged up to Thompson, now wearing No. 31 with teammate Kyrie Irving in No. 11, and offered a quick embrace in their first words of the day before Andrew Wiggins also hugged his old teammate.
“Thankfully we were all able to focus on the game and just hoop and compete,” Curry said. “It was an unreal night for sure all the way around.”
Photo: AP
Thompson scored 22 points on seven-of-17 shooting with six three-pointers, but watched Curry shine in the closing moments of Golden State’s 120-117 victory.
Thompson high-fived a fan afterward and tossed his white headband into the seats, giving some lucky patron an unexpected souvenir.
Earlier, after a brief jump-rope routine outside the Mavericks’ locker room, Thompson ran out the tunnel and onto the floor to thunderous applause from Warriors fans with phones up to capture the moment of Thompson’s return.
Photo: Cary Edmondson / Imagn Images
“It was a cool moment to feel the energy from the fans,” Thompson said. “Especially all the chatter that I heard, it was all positive.”
Curry had considered addressing the crowd before tipoff, but he and Thompson traded a couple of text messages and they decided to each focus on the game, although Warriors coach Steve Kerr knew it would be something when they had to defend each other.
Just 15 seconds into the game Curry fouled Thompson, who scored the initial two points of the contest on free throws. He missed his initial two field-goal attempts before knocking down a three-pointer with 1 minute, 26 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
“I’m so surprised they ran a post up for him on the first play,” Curry said. “I blacked out on that one, I wasn’t going to let him score and I fouled him. It was a pretty special night.”
The Warriors invited all their employees to be part of the welcoming committee for Thompson, who joined Dallas in July on a three-year, US$50 million contract. Thompson, 34, missed more than two-and-a-half years — the entire 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons — recovering from surgeries on his left knee and right Achilles tendon before making his comeback in January 2022.
“I think what he overcame is almost unprecedented,” Kerr said. “The last couple of years after he came back he struggled reconciling all of that, losing those prime seasons. We all saw that, saw him struggle with it emotionally. We saw him fight to get his game back. He helped us win a championship, led the league in threes two years ago, he did a lot of amazing things.”
“We wished that this had gone forever, that Klay would have finished his career with us, but circumstances always dictate these things,” he said. “In the end I think he made the right choice. I think he needed a fresh start, I think he needed kind of a new set of surroundings and that was apparent last year. He was not happy and that was hard to see, because he deserves to be happy. At his core he’s a very happy person.”
Thompson had tried to downplay the magnitude of being back in the Bay Area, considering it just another game in November.
“I hope you all didn’t believe him,” said Curry, who watched the tribute video from the tunnel to have some space with all the emotions.
When the home crowd went crazy, jumped to their feet in a warm ovation and tipped those captain hats when he was introduced, Thompson became visibly emotional and clearly touched by the tribute. He waved and saluted in several directions.
“I couldn’t imagine a better night all the way around,” Curry said.
Golden State held a “Salute Captain Klay” ceremony before tipoff to pay tribute to Thompson’s contributions to the franchise and his tradition of boating across the bay to games. He is to be back again in February in the Mavs’ second trip to Chase Center.
For Kerr, this moment felt far different from Thompson’s triumphant return nearly three years ago from the injuries and daunting grind of rehab that the veteran guard considered some of the most difficult days of his life.
“That was a welcome back, we knew there were a lot of good times ahead. In fact there was a championship six months later,” Kerr said. “This one is obviously more of a goodbye, the first time we will have seen him... It’ll feel very strange, but it will be a different vibe, more of a thank you and a goodbye and everything that you’ve meant to us.”
Elsewhere on Tuesday, it was:
‧ 76ers 99, Knicks 111
‧ Bucks 99, Raptors 85
‧ Celtics 116, Hawks 117
‧ Jazz 112, Suns 120
‧ Magic 114, Hornets 89
‧ Pistons 123, Heat 121 (OT)
‧ Trail Blazers 122, T’wolves 108
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS