The Dallas Mavericks (5-5) head to the Golden State Warriors (8-2) on Tuesday night for the NBA Cup, but the greatest subplot is Klay Thompson’s return to face his former team.
He played 13 years with the Warriors, earning four titles and appearing in five All-Star games. He had only played for one team in his career before signing a three-year, $50 million contract with the Dallas Mavericks this offseason.
Thompson has said it’ll be just another regular season game, but his former Splash Brother still isn’t a big fan of the idea of Thompson not playing for the Warriors.
“It’s weird seeing No. 31,” Stephen Curry said to The Athletic’s Andrew Slater. “I hate that.”
In Sunday’s postgame locker room scrum, Curry also said, “I don’t know [what Thompson’s return will be like]. We’ve had homecomings before, but nothing like this.”
Many people thought Klay Thompson would stick with the Golden State Warriors for his entire career, but he felt disrespected in contract negotiations after they gave extensions to Draymond Green, Jordan Poole, and others. Even the Warriors’ owner, Joe Lacob was surprised when Thompson told the team he was leaving.
“If you would’ve told me a few years ago, if there’s one person that I would have never thought that would ever leave the Warriors and would retire as a Warrior, I would probably (have said) Klay would be the highest likelihood,” Lacob told Slater.
Steve Kerr expects it to be “as emotional as anything we’ve ever experienced,” as Thompson was the first of Golden State’s stars to leave. Draymond Green and Curry have stuck around and likely will be there through the end of their careers, but Thompson wanted to prove he could still be a big part of a championship team. The Warriors have gotten off to a better start than the Mavs this year, but Dallas is coming off of a run to the NBA Finals last year.
Thompson has been a little disappointing recently, making just two of his last 13 three-pointers and averaging 13.8 PPG. Luka Doncic has admitted it’s taken some getting used to having Thompson in the line-up, but the team is confident they can get it figured out.
The Warriors have planned to give every fan in attendance a captain’s hat on Tuesday night as a nod to Thompson’s love of boating. Thompson famously wore a captain’s hat during their fourth championship parade in 2022.
