Klay Thompson has gone to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in the NBA. He's someone who credibly could talk about the joy of winning NBA championships and also the agony of going down with a serious injury and not being able to play for a very long period of time. It is for the same reason why his words must have a special impact on Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, who received some encouraging remarks from Thompson soon after he tore his left ACL during an April 2021 road game against the Warriors.

Via Mike Singer of the Denver Post.

In the grim postgame locker room, as Murray grappled with the magnitude of his injury, his knee burned. There, inside the visiting locker room at the Chase Center, was Thompson — one of the few people who could empathize.

“I told him that I felt for him, first off,” Thompson told The Denver Post. “… I can tell by how competitive he is. If he channels that competitiveness into his daily tasks he has to do for his knee, he’s going to be an All-Star level player again.”

Murray's injury has been a big blow for the Nuggets, even though the team is admirably doing well without the guard. Murray was averaging 21.2 points per game in the 2020-21 NBA season when he suffered the injury, and he certainly could not wait to fully heal and re-join his Nuggets teammates.

Thompson, on the other hand, has finally made his way back to NBA action with the Warriors after nearly 1,000 days away from it due to serious lower-body injuries.