Wait is over: Klay will play Sunday for Warriors
After two and a half years, Klay Thompson will play his first game back from two injuries for the Golden State Warriors on Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In what will go down as one of the most memorable nights in Warriors history, Klay Thompson return to action Sunday after a 2 1.2 year absence.
Golden State’s star shooting guard, one half of the Splash Brothers duo with Steph Curry, used his “spirit animal” to make the news official in a video posted Saturday afternoon to social media: “Perhaps I can be of assistance,” Bill Murray tells Michael Jordan in the brief “Space Jam” clip.
“How I’m pulling up to Chase tomorrow,” Thompson captioned the video. Then, in all caps, “I’M SO EXCITED TO SEE Y’ALL DUBNATION. LET’S GET IT.”
After two-and-a-half years of recovery from two traumatic leg injuries, Thompson on Saturday received the final clearance from the Warriors medical staff. Prior to his post, shortly after 2 p.m., coach Steve Kerr played coy during his post-practice news conference to allow Thompson to make the announcement himself.
“Whenever he decides to come back, we’re excited to have him,” Kerr said, tongue in cheek, knowing the news that was imminent. “Work with me here,” he told the room of reporters. “Let me help you read the tea leaves: It’s not my announcement to make.”
With the news official, Kerr compared the emotion anticipated Sunday night to Michael Jordan’s first game back from a two-year absence, which Kerr was also a part of as player. It was buzzing with a postseason atmosphere but for a particular moment rather than an outcome.
“We’ve known for a long time that the night Klay came back was going to be one of the most emotional games that any of us will be a part of,” Kerr said. “There’s a sense of reinforcements coming in, but there’s also the sense of everybody loves being around Klay.”
As he exited the interview room, Juan Toscano-Anderson had a message for the reporters gathered: “See y’all at the show tomorrow.”
The last time Thompson played in an NBA game was June 13, 2019. Thompson, who was averaging 26.0 points through the first five games of that year’s NBA Finals, already had 30 by the 2:22 mark of the third quarter in Game 6. Then he went for dunk in the lane, fell to the floor, and has been working his way back ever since.
Thompson will be penciled into the starting lineup, but coach Steve Kerr has said to expect his minutes to be restricted to about 15 to 20 per game initially. The Warriors have been careful to manage expectations for Thompson as he comes off a nearly unprecedented recovery from tears to his left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and right Achilles tendon.
“We know who is he, we know what kind of player he is, but we also want to give him the space that he’s going to need to find his rhythm and his timing after two and a half years off,” Kerr said this week.
Before his injuries, Thompson recorded his fifth straight season averaging 20.0 or more points and his seventh with 200-plus 3-pointers (the only player to accomplish that feat besides his fellow Splash Brother). During his rehab, he felt slighted by his exclusion from a list of the 76 greatest players of all-time, and soon thereafter, a No. 77 practice jersey became a frequent uniform (preceded by the headband).
“Last time I was playing I was one of the best players in the world,” Thompson said upon his return to practice in November. “I don’t want to come back and be a shell of myself.”
That said, Thompson admitted to obsessing over certain stats prior to his injury. Now that he’s back on the court, “I’ve kind of scratched that,” he said. “I have an open canvas of what’s gonna happen. … I know with time, whether it’s toward the end of this year toward playoff time or next year, my numbers will be great again.”
When Thompson fires off his first silky smooth jump shot Sunday, 941 days will have elapsed since his last one, enough time for the Warriors to build a new, billion-dollar arena on the San Francisco waterfront, a slightly easier commute than Oakland’s Oracle Arena for Thompson on his 37-foot vessel.
Sometime around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, with the lights dimmed and players dancing, Klay Thompson’s name will bellow from the public address system inside Chase Center for the very first time. Then, he’ll step on to the court alongside Steph Curry and Draymond Green and Kevon Looney for the first time in forever, and Andrew Wiggins for the first time ever.
In anticipation, ticket prices climbed to record levels, with one primo seat listed as high as $25,000.
In addition to a shiny, new arena, Thompson has new pieces to play with on the court: notably Wiggins, whom Golden State acquired about seven months into Thompson’s rehab from his initial injury. The player Thompson is replacing in the starting lineup, Jordan Poole, was drafted weeks after Thompson’s initial injury and evolved from potential bust to cornerstone in the time Thompson has been away.
In the late stages of the rehab from his initial injury, Thompson ruptured his opposite Achilles tendon during a workout in Southern California. He underwent surgery on Nov. 25, 2020, and almost exactly 12 months later, was cleared to resume contact work in practice, setting up the final stage of an almost unprecedented recovery process.
There were rumblings of a return timed around Christmas. But the holiday game in Phoenix acted as a different milestone: Thompson’s first time traveling with his teammates. On their next road trip, he would scrimmage alongside Curry for the first time, providing the duo a trial run of sorts for Sunday night.
Thompson called that scrimmage, inside Denver’s Ball Arena after their game that Thursday night against the Nuggets was postponed, “a big moment for me.”
As his return came into clearer view, his teammates stopped hiding their excitement. The anticipation that has enraptured the fan base is only that much more vivid for those who have watched Thompson’s plight for the past two and a half years.
Curry admitted last week to daydreaming “all the time” about the moment that will be crystalized Sunday, when the Splash Brothers finally reunite.
“Once he gets back to who he is,” Curry said, “that’s gonna be fun.”
Green, perhaps stating the obvious, said Thompson’s return “takes this team to another level.”
However, Green said in the same breath, “nobody’s expecting it to just be seamless.”