It's been a big week for the Golden State Warriors. Star sharpshooter Klay Thompson decided to leave the Dubs and play for the Dallas Mavericks, breaking up a trio of Thompson, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green that has been together since 2012.
Now, Green is sharing what it was like to learn that Thompson was leaving the Warriors:
Said Draymond on Thompson's departure, “I don't really know how I feel about it. Klay told us last week. I don't know who all he told, but I know he talked to me. Pretty sure he talked to Steph last week. And he just kind of was like, ‘Yeah, man, like, you know…' just started talking me through the years, like ‘been great, what we've done is so special.' When Klay told me, I was just able to listen, you know, and it wasn't, like, a ‘yo, we could finish like this' or ‘you should rethink this.' It was just like, ‘wow, alright. Congrats bro. Like, I'm happy for you. That's dope.'
“You know, to obviously reassure that that changes nothing for us. Like, changes the basketball court obviously. But the relationships, they are what they are. They are forever. I think I might have dropped a couple tears.”
The Warriors' core of Curry, Green, and Thompson reached six NBA Finals, winning four NBA Championships.
Warriors make additions to Steve Kerr's coaching staff
![Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr gestures from the bench against the Washington Wizards in the first half at Capital One Arena](https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Steve-Kerr.jpg)
Amid the chaos of the last week, the Warriors are making some additions to Steve Kerr's coaching staff, hiring Terry Stotts as lead assistant and Jerry Stackhouse as an assistant.
Stackhouse, a mid-1990s North Carolina basketball icon from Kinston, N.C., who went on to become a two-time NBA All-Star across his 18 years as a powerfully athletic wing in the league, was the head coach at Vanderbilt the last five seasons, compiling a 70-92 overall record.
He and the university parted aways in March following his 2023-24 team's underwhelming 9-23 campaign, the program's seventh straight season without an NCAA Tournament invite.
Stotts, a longtime NBA head coach with the Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks, and Portland Trail Blazers, joins the Warriors after a brief stint as a Bucks assistant last season. He resigned in mid-October after a run-in with head coach Adrian Griffin, who was later fired from his position.
Stotts and the Trail Blazers parted ways in the 2021 offseason after another unsuccessful playoff stint that led to a first-round exit against the Denver Nuggets. Portland made it all the way to the West Finals in 2018-19 – being swept by the Warriors – and they went to the second round in 2013-14 and 2015-16 seasons.