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Players move on from organizations that they have spent a majority of their career with all the time. Dwyane Wade left the Miami Heat after 13 seasons before ultimately returning, and LeBron James has played for three different teams over his Hall of Fame career. Klay Thompson's decision to leave the Golden State Warriors was a little different than other legends who have switched teams in the offseason, especially since Thompson was supposed to retire in a Warriors uniform next to Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.
The idea of Thompson leaving Golden State had been growing ever since the start of the 2023-24 season. With the five-time All-Star wanting a new extension and to be paid like his counterparts, it seemed inevitable that change was going to happen for the Warriors, an organization that had changed the landscape of the league over the last decade with their four title runs since 2015.
Even with Thompson now a member of the Dallas Mavericks, a bitter rival of the Warriors, his legacy will always be cemented in the Bay Area. The four championship runs Thompson went on with Curry and Green will never be erased, and this bond these three players share will never be broken.
Then again, it appears as if Steph and Draymond are both ready to flip the page and show Klay that he made the wrong decision.
“Through training camps and practices, we played against each other on opposite teams,” Curry said, via ESPN, “but nothing like an actual competitive NBA game. So they'll have the ceremony … and I'm going to be fully engaged and present and making sure you celebrate him the way he's supposed to. And then after that, it's war. That's how we're all built.”
If anyone is ready for the matchup against Thompson, it is Green. Thompson and Green will remain close friends off the court, but when the Warriors play the Mavericks, we should expect nothing less than a lot of talking between the former teammates.
“It's a happy divorce, if there's a divorce,” Green stated. “A lot of divorces are nasty. This ain't one of them. I don't even qualify it as a divorce. It's just the next chapter in all of our lives. It's an opportunity for me and Steph, see what we can do together.”
Stephen Curry, Draymond Green's bond with Klay Thompson
Since Curry, Green, and Thompson were paired with one another as young talents with dreams of winning a championship in 2011, the Warriors have won 617 total games, the most in the NBA. This trio made nine playoff appearances together, making it to the NBA Finals six different times and capturing four titles in an eight-year span.
Legendary is the only word that comes to mind to describe what Thompson achieved alongside Curry and Green with the Warriors.
No matter what, these three stars are always going to have a chapter together in NBA lore, and their bond off the court will always be true. Curry, Green, and Thompson basically came into the league with one another and turned a failing organization into one of the greatest in all of professional sports.
While they may not be teammates anymore, this relationship will still be strong moving forward.
“It's weird, we talked about [taking the boat out] when we first came into the league, stuff that we used to do together,” Curry said. “Then you start having families, me and Draymond have multiple kids and schedules going crazy. But I will get on this boat at some point, even though we're not teammates anymore.
“You're friends first, teammates second. And that is how the relationship is, and we will always be. I wish it was both. But I love Klay. I respect him for 78 games out of the year. I won't say I'll be rooting for him, but I'll be watching him. The other four games we play him, I'll be ready to go at him.”
Draymond may be ready to run through Klay's chest when they play against one another for the first time on November 12, but at the end of the day, these three stars are brothers. The legacy the Warriors have created for themselves speaks for itself.
