What’s been going on in the world since Klay Thompson’s last game with Warriors
It will have been 941 days since Thompson suffered his knee injury in Game 6 of the NBA Finals when he returns to the court Sunday against the Cavaliers.
The wait is nearly over for Klay Thompson as well as Warriors fans.
Sunday, Thompson will return to the court for the first time since Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals, when he tore the ACL in his left knee.
What was hoped to be just one season away has agonizingly stretched to nearly two and a half for the 31-year-old Thompson. The absence was prolonged by an Achilles tendon injury he suffered during a pickup game shortly before training camp was set to open in November 2020.
Now there finally is a finish line to that long, tortuous road for Thompson and his legion of fans. Sunday. At home. Against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It will have been 941 days since Thompson suffered his knee injury during the third quarter of the deciding game against the Toronto Raptors on June 13, 2019.
Nobody had even heard of the coronavirus that day. Donald Trump was president. What else has happened (or was happening) in the world since Thompson’s last game?
Here’s a sampling:
– 37 different players have worn a Warriors uniform. Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Damion Lee and Kevon Looney are the only players still on the roster from the team Thompson helped reach the 2019 Finals.
Thompson’s been out so long that he never got to play against Iguodala when as a member of the Miami Heat.
– The No. 1 song on the Billboard charts was Old Town Road by Lil Nas X and featuring Billy Ray Cyrus.
– The Giants have made 28 trades involving 52 players.
– The Raiders and the Warriors were still playing in Oakland.
— Curry has made 529 3-pointers, and along the way became the NBA’s all-time career leader for 3-pointers made. He’s hoisted up 1,314 attempts from 3-point range (and beyond) as a lone “Splash Brother.”
– Sunday will mark the 91st game the Warriors have played at Chase Center. It’ll be Thompson’s first time playing on the court, although he’s spent plenty of time there during his downtime, even handling some broadcasting duties.
– Thompson had his jersey retired by his alma mater, Washington State.
– The NBA lost several prominent ambassadors of the sport, including David Stern, Elgin Baylor, Paul Westphal and Jerry Sloan.
– Lakers legend and Thompson’s basketball idol Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.
– The average price of gasoline in San Francisco was $3.70 per gallon. It’s now around $4.65.
— Rocco the bulldog has been Thompson’s steady companion in good times and bad, and his fans have remained loyal as well. Thompson has racked up nearly 1 million votes from fans in NBA All-Star ballotting the past three years despite not setting a foot on the court. He finished 9th among Western Conference guards last season, and was fourth when the first round of this year’s voting was announced this week.
– Drake, whose beloved Raptors beat the Warriors in those 2019 Finals, has in the time since had 16 songs land in the top-10, including three that went to No. 1.
– The 49ers appeared in their first Super Bowl in seven years.
— James Wiseman, the Warriors’ 2020 first-round pick, graduated from high school.
– Secret Lives of Pets was the No. 1 movie in the United States.
– Urban Meyer was hired and fired as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ head coach.
– “Splash Brother” Curry had – and returned from – his own significant injury, missing four months during the 2019-20 season with a broken left hand.
– The Hallmark Channel has released 118 holiday-themed movies.
– Giants star Buster Posey had an injury-marred season that looked like he was washed up, skipped another season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and adoption of twin girls, then produced one of the best seasons by a catcher in decades before announcing his retirement.
– Fellow NBA star Russell Westbrook has played for three different teams.
— Jim Barnett was still the Warriors’ TV color analyst.
– For the first time since 2012, the middle of Thompson’s second season in the NBA, the McRib returned to menus for a limited time. Twice, in fact.
– It was a heady time in the Star Wars universe: The Rise of Skywalker was released as well as two new TV series: The Mandalorian (two seasons) and The Book of Boba Fett in addition to the final season of the animated Clone Wars series.
– Among the NBA players who retired were: Dwayne Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Vince Carter, Leandro Barbosa, Andrew Bogut, LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol.
– The Warriors have played 175 games without Thompson. That absence probably has cost him at least 3,400 points – he has averaged 19.5 points during his career, although averaged 21.5 during the 2018-19 season and was just entering his prime.
If he hadn’t been hurt, Thompson almost certainly would have already cracked the top 150 scorers all-time and would be closing in on the likes of former Warriors star Tim Hardaway and NBA luminaries Walt Frazier and Pete Maravich.