“In two and a half years the world has changed, but Klay Thompson hasn’t…He’s a BUCKET GETTER!” yelled Bob Fitzgerald, the play-by-play commentator for NBC Sports Bay Area, after Klay Thompson scored the first basket for the Warriors in his first game back. Fitzgerald’s reaction represents what Warriors fans everywhere felt on the evening of January 9, 2022. Many ask, why so much emotion?
Klay Thompson has been a cornerstone of the Warriors dynasty from 2014 to 2019. Without him, the Warriors would not have reached five straight NBA Finals and won three of them. Thompson is without a doubt one of the greatest shooters in NBA history.
When the Warriors selected Klay Thompson 11th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft, the entire NBA world knew which direction the Warriors were heading, especially after drafting Stephen Curry seventh overall in 2009. The team was going for shooters, hoping that they could develop them into all around two-way contributors to the team, with a possibility of becoming stars. This approach ended up paying off, big time.
When the Warriors traded veteran guard Monte Ellis in 2012, they had gone past the point of no return. The owners and front office made all the right decisions, surrounding Curry and Thompson, who became known as the “Splash Brothers” because of their three-point shooting abilities, with exceptional players like Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes. Although a championship team was in the making, they didn’t didn’t have enough experience to reach the threshold of success.
Those struggles ended in 2014, when the ownership decided to fire Mark Jackson, the coach that developed all the pieces, and hire Steve Kerr, who won multiple championships playing for both Michael Jordan’s Bulls and Tim Duncan’s Spurs. Kerr was the spark that the Warriors needed. His championship experience as a player and his emphasis on shooting, combined with the playoff experience that the players had gained, finally brought the team into stardom.
During five consecutive championship runs from the 2014 to 2019, Klay Thompson has consistently played his best and left his mark in key games in the playoffs with his clutch shooting. One of the most memorable was Game Six of the 2016 Western Conference Finals, when the Warriors played the Oklahoma City Thunder for a spot in the NBA Finals. The Warriors had fallen behind three to one in the seven-game series, and had just come off a huge Game Five win.
The toughest test was Game Six, when they travelled to Oklahoma City and had to pull off a win to keep their hopes alive. Even during the game, the Thunder, who had Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, took an early lead and held on well into the fourth quarter. The game was still in reach, but it would take a miracle for them to pull even. Klay Thompson delivered that miracle. He made three after three after three, finishing with 41 points and almost single-handedly forcing a Game Seven for the Warriors. The Thunder just had no answer. Eventually, the Warriors won the series four to three and advanced to their second straight NBA Finals.
All in all, Klay Thompson’s contribution to the Warriors success is undeniable, and after losing Klay Thompson to injury in the last game of the 2019 NBA Finals, which the Warriors lost, it seemed to the players like they lost a part of their soul. During an interview, words like “painstaking” came to Steve Kerr’s mind when asked to describe the emotions of the team during the first couple of months after his initial ACL tear in June 2019.
An even bigger blow came over a year later, when in November 2020, just as he was about to be cleared for practice with the team, he suffered an Achilles tendon tear during a pickup game with other NBA players. This would cause him to miss at least another year, pushing back his return date to January 2022. The emotion behind his absence from the court showed in a recent game when Klay Thompson, who has been watching every Warriors game from the bench, stayed behind for over half an hour after a game ended, presumably reflecting on his recovery and his return.
Now that he’s back, Thompson gives the Warriors, who were already one of the best teams in the league, another threat. Many commentators believe that although he isn’t quite as consistent as pre-injury, his recovery has been extremely successful and the injuries definitely haven’t limited his athleticism and basketball talent.
Klay Thompson’s perseverance is a story that tells of true determination and focus. His love for basketball overcame all the adversity he went through, and his emotional return encapsulates all of it.