Klay Thompson's comments criticizing Golden State Warriors fans rang oddly in the minds of many Oracle Arena faithful following a rare loss to the bottom-dwelling Phoenix Suns. Owner Joe Lacob didn't agree with his star shooting guard's decision to call out the fans, and he wasn't shy about saying why:
“I love Klay. And I would never say anything bad about Klay. But I think he was wrong about this one. And if I saw him today I would’ve told him that,” Lacob told Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “Look, I go to all the games. I’m a fan. I thought at the end of the game last night the fans were on their feet. They were trying to bring the guys back and Klay, by the way, was the guy at the middle of it, playing really hard defense, played great. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to pull it off.”
Lacob understands his comments were coming fresh off a moment of frustration, and a lot of the situation had to do with who the Warriors were playing and the outcome the fans expected to get:
“But I think, look, we were playing the Phoenix Suns. We were not playing the Milwaukee Bucks or something,” said Lacob. “Maybe there was a little bit of a letdown. We didn’t play as well as we should’ve. We need to learn from that. Some teams never learn from it. This team has proven it does learn from things it doesn’t do right.
“Fans not being totally into it, maybe that’s the way he perceived it. I didn’t see that. I think our fans are great. I think he was just frustrated that we lost.”
This was out of character for Thompson, who's typically a fan favorite at Oracle.. Lacob is fair to gauge this as a one-time offense, given the situation, but it's hard to demand more of the crowd when a team doesn't muster the energy to compete the way they should.
Yes, they had a rough shooting night, but the crowd isn't the one willing the misses out of the net. It was the players, their shot selection and the defense being played that affected that 10-of-43 shooting night from deep.
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