If this is, in fact, how Klay Thompson’s time in the Bay Area ends, it’ll be peculiar and inexplicable.
Or, in other words, fitting.
Thompson has never been one to be fully understood. He’s a one-off, a man who goes to the beat of his own drum; the rules that applied to everyone else somehow didn’t apply to him (much to the chagrin of some big-name former teammates). And his inscrutability made him lovable.
Now it might make him a member of another team for the first time in his Hall of Fame career.
Five-time All-Star and four-time champion, who has spent his entire 13-year career with the Warriors, is dipping his toes (and perhaps his whole body) into the waters of unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career.
There are interested parties. The level of that interest will be fully gauged in the coming days.
But amid that interest, there’s also a prevailing sense of animosity permeating from Thompson’s camp, aimed at the Warriors.
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It leaks out in little ways amid the cacophony that is this, the NBA’s silly season, but when words like “respect” and “relationship” pop up in conversation, it’s worth noting.
There’s something larger in play here. It’s personal, at least for Thompson.
And that tells us that Thompson isn’t just bluffing when he talks to other teams. It’s not all a tactic to make the Warriors jealous.
This is no rom-com. In fact, for the Warriors, losing Thompson could qualify as a tragedy.
There’s more than one orange ball bouncing for Golden State right now. Chris Paul and the Dubs agreed to push back the guarantee date on his contract to the end of the weekend — the eve of the new league year (which brings with it new, onerous rules for trading players).
The Warriors are also actively shopping Andrew Wiggins in trades, all while keeping him off the Canadian Olympic basketball team — are they protecting him or themselves?
The Dubs are closely monitoring the Paul George situation in the Southland, too, looking to add one of the NBA’s best players in case (or because) they lost their all-time great wing.
And amid all that, the Warriors are tasked with keeping one of the greatest players in franchise history — Steph Curry’s Splash Brother.
Of course, …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
