(Above quote is from Andre Iguodala)
Two weeks ago, the news that was becoming both more inevitable and more unbelievable became reality. Klay Thompson announced he was leaving the Warriors to join the Dallas Mavericks. He’s a Splash Brother. He’s a folk hero. He’s a Hall of Famer. And it had seemed that he was going to do the unusual for the NBA and play his entire career in Golden State, with Steph and Draymond. Until it wasn’t.
Klay Thompson is not just any basketball player. And he’s definitely not like other NBA stars. Klay is possibly the least curated NBA star. Which means he’s prickly sometimes, introspective sometimes, funny often and always honest. Klay was the most accessible Warrior, the star you were most likely to see in the real world. And while none of us have much in common with a multimillionaire with a perfect jump shot, somehow Klay was like us. So many people have a great Klay story, whether it’s Klay pulling up late night to a street corner in Oakland to talk to a favorite local rapper, or befriending the owner of the Ramp while he was parking his boat there in error. Klay could be anywhere. He might be on Baker Beach, hiking Mount Tam, riding around with Rocco, or getting coffee with his neighbors or he might be talking to a reporter about scaffolding. Steph is a global brand, Draymond lives in LA, and Klay is being Klay.
How did the impossible happen? Let’s dive into my least favorite basketball subject - off-season NBA contracts. I have a tendency to blame Draymond for everything that I don’t like about the Warriors, but this one isn’t on him, though his recent contract signing does play into it. It is hard to see your colleague punch a teammate and then get a contract for 4 years/$100 million a year later without thinking “Shit, I’m worth at least that - most 3s in the NBA last season, played more minutes than any other Warrior this season.” But that’s not Draymond’s fault, that’s the front office making those decisions.
This front office is known for delaying contracts. When a player is eligible to be re-signed, they rarely get a contract right away, nearly everyone waits until free agency or the edge of free agency. But how well is that working? Not signing Green until the last minute clearly impacted his play all of the 22-23 season. Klay was impacted by contract talks all of this year, bristling every time it was brought up, and his contract was brought up often. It’s a strategy for paying less, but it doesn’t seem to be a good strategy for winning.
If you don’t know me by now, you will never never never know me
Even though their negotiation strategy wasn’t personal, it should have been. Joe Lacob should have known that Klay was not going to do what everyone else had done, what Draymond and Andre Iguodala had done in their contract negotiations. Klay has always been different. There’s a reason “that’s just Klay being Klay” is a phrase every Warriors fan understands. So why didn’t the front office understand that?
As the stories of the negotiation came out, it seems that management kept telling Klay to wait. Yes, they would resign him but not yet, not now, because they were making lots of moves that had a higher priority. The last offer Klay’s agent made in mid-June was 2 years/$40 million, a price the front office would absolutely be willing to pay. (For context, that’s less total than Klay made this year alone, and it’s less than the Warriors offered at the start of the year). But management still told him to wait.
I want you to want me
In one of my side gigs, I write about how to create and sustain belonging at work. Somewhat obviously, “Wait your turn” is not a way to sustain belonging. Neither is “We are going to play every younger guy over you, even when they aren’t playing better.” It’s one thing to take a lesser role and another to be seen as interchangeable or disposable. Maybe the Warriors thought his desire to continue with Steph and Dray was so strong that he would never leave. Maybe they thought he was bluffing. That’s not Klay’s style. Apparently Klay called Steph and asked Steph not to intervene on his behalf . You either want me on the team, or you don’t. Going into last year’s free agency, the Warriors repeatedly said that signing Draymond was their top priority. There were no such declarations for Klay, except from Kerr who said he was needed “desperately” but also said that Klay needed to be comfortable with not starting or finishing games. The lack of respect cuts deep.
You took my joy, I want it back
In Draymond’s podcast, he said that Klay has been unhappy all this year and because of that, although he was sad, he couldn’t ask his friend to stay, even though they need him on the team. You want your people to be happy. That shook me out of my self-centeredness. Klay deserves happiness - he has been so devoted to making choices that prioritize it. And also because of the enormous mental cost of his two years of rehab. Some of the discourse about his contract was that the Warriors paid him handsomely while he was not playing. While that’s true, I see it differently. The vast majority of that time was one dark night of the soul after another for Klay. It wasn’t getting paid while he had time off. Those were the hardest days of his career, in part because he didn’t know if they were going to end. As I’ve written before, watching Klay’s return has been powerful to watch, as a person who often has to pick themselves up and start over. Klay’s comeback was most literally about his return to the court but it was also about the return to himself. His willingness to show a small part of it to the public has meant something profound to me. His commitment to doing things his way has meant something to me. WWKD is a thought I often have. In my version, the voice of Klay Thompson tells me “When in doubt, be the most you you can, preferably near the ocean.”
The thought that his return to the Warriors post-injury has not brought him joy breaks my heart.
And logically, I can’t even say that I’ll miss him, because my relationship is exactly the same as it was before. I’m going to watch Klay play, except it will be on the Mavericks. And the Mavericks have been a good place for players to find themselves. Kyrie Irving, who was floundering in his Celtics/Nets time, getting press for all the wrong reasons has been amazing in Dallas as the vet on the team, magic on the court and wise off of it. He looks like he’s having fun again. Kyrie is another free spirit and Klay might appreciate not being the quirkiest person on the roster.
This is from a while ago when Kyrie was in Cleveland, but watching Kyrie do the Running Man Challenge always makes me smile.
My last post was about Daniel Gafford and how his move from the Wizards to the Mavericks was brilliant for him. Klay’s gonna love playing with him - the connection Klay had with Trayce Jackson-Davis will be even stronger with Gafford. Sure, things will be different in Dallas. It’s well known that the Warriors do some things that other teams don’t - bring families with them on road trips, have team dinners paid by the team owner where friends and family are welcomed. Klay’s older brother has been on the Warriors staff since Klay was injured. And Klay did have the best possible commute to work imaginable with his boat ride across the Bay. But team dinners don’t matter if you don’t feel valued by the team. Great facilities don’t matter if you don’t like showing up for work.
As for me, I’m in all the stages of grief and gratitude and acceptance. Buying a Klay t-shirt, watching highlights, reading everything. I’m trying to learn from my mistakes. When Jordan Poole got traded from the Warriors last year, I was in shocked sadness all summer. I now understand that there is no reason to stay sad. Klay is on the Mavericks, not on Mars. There is still a story to watch, just in a different time zone. I have League Pass - all games are available to me. And when the nights get long, when the Warriors might be having yet another .500 season, well, all the past is on League Pass too. If I want glory days, I can find them. The 60 points in 29 minutes game, the 37 point quarter, Game Six Klay, the purity of his shot, the finest shooting form in the NBA.
I will miss Steph and Klay together and their bond, forged slowly.
This is from March 2023. It is rare to see Steph and Klay together in a press conference. At the start of the press conference, the media asks Klay a question while he has a handheld mic in front of him on the table. He continues to fold his airplane while answering. Steph sees this, picks up the mic and holds it for Klay and then he switches his mic with Klay’s so Klay has the mic stand and can continue working. This clip is towards the end of the presser. What Curry says is not relevant - watch Klay in this clip, both getting bored and then making a birthday gift for his buddy. “Here you go, bro,” Klay whispers as Steph answers “aw, respect.”
And of course, there’s the Splash Brothers at the office. The best backcourt ever.
But now there’s also this. I watched Klay’s first press conference in Dallas. Klay looked lighter, felt lighter, was the combination of cryptic, philosophical, goofy and not paying attention that he used to be.
It’s hard to be who you are when there are so many reminders of who you were. That seems to be why Klay didn’t take the Lakers offer, even if it seemed to be an obvious choice - the team he rooted for as a child, the team where his dad played for, the team his dad is the color commentator for, the chance to play beside LeBron.
I get it. Sixteen years ago, I got the flu for two weeks, but got a post-viral illness for the rest of my life. Everything changed in ways I still sort out. But one thing that I learned in the first few years was that it was easier to be with people who didn’t know me from the Before Times. They weren’t trying to get me back to who I had been or what I could do. I didn’t need to waste my energy chasing an illusion that wasn’t coming back, or waste even more energy trying to pretend to be someone I’m not. It was such a relief. There is relief in going to Dallas. The chance to be who Klay is, the opportunity for greatness on its own terms, without the past in every moment. There’s so much freedom there.
So maybe Klay is giving the Warrior faithful one last lesson. Go where you are wanted. Be where people are happy to see you walk in the door. Your joy is worth more than money.
Klay Thompson, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I am a better person from watching you play hundreds of games alongside Steph, shaking your head at every miss, tongue curled on your upper lip, making another impossible lightning fast three, and being a constant example of what it means to choose your own adventure.
82 Mavericks games? 82 Mavericks games.
Do you want more details of Klay leaving the Warriors? Go to Marcus Thompson, Anthony Slater, and ESPN
The Timeout Books: (books I read during the timeouts and halftimes) and in the summer, that’s WNBA games.
A Game At A Time Playlist (the songs that pop in my head while writing this)
First, a favorite song of Klay’s