No one had more fun at the Golden State Warriors joyously raucous championship celebration than Klay Thompson.

As he downed Hennessy from the bottle, turned Market Street into an impromptu dance floor with his best Michael Jackson impression and even bowled over one fan after tripping on his feet, it's safe to say the years of tireless rehab and simmering frustration that preceded Thompson's fourth title were at least in the back of his mind.

After all, his lowest moment in one of the most arduous returns from injury in NBA history played out seven months ago, just a stone's throw from the parade route in downtown San Francisco.

Asked about the toughest moments of Thompson's recovery on Tuesday's edition of The Lowe Post, Steve Kerr recalled him reaching an emotional nadir following a Warriors win at Chase Center in December.

“One that jumps out is maybe about a month or so before he made his comeback. So I'm guessing mid-December? We had a home game,” Kerr said. “He's been toiling away for a couple years now. After the game he went out onto the court and sat on the bench as the stands emptied out at Chase. I had a couple people come to me and say, ‘Coach, you kneed to go check on Klay. He's out sitting on our bench and he's despondent right now.' So I went out there and he's basically crying on the bench by himself. Steph and Draymond both came out there. I think everything was too much for Klay at that point. He was still kind of wondering, like, ‘Is this ever gonna happen for me?' Everything that he had been through seemed to kind of come to a boiling point for him emotionally and he just started crying. There were people still filing out of the arena, the other team comes out to see their families and stuff. There were a lot of people around. People were kind of looking over, but he just had his head in his hands. The irony is he was only a few weeks away from coming back, but it was just such a haul that I think it just overwhelmed him.”

Thompson was sidelined for two-and-a-half seasons—a total of 941 days—before making his long-awaited return to the floor on January 9th. He first tore his left ACL while leading Golden State's ultimately futile comeback efforts against the Toronto Raptors in Game 6 of the 2019 Finals, causing him to miss the entirety of the 2019-20 season, then ruptured his right Achilles tendon on November 18th, 2020 while preparing to play in 2020-21.

Thompson, nearly three full years and two major lower-body surgeries later, didn't quite regain his pre-injury form with the Warriors this season. But just the fact he was able to contribute at all for Golden State with a championship on the line, let alone average a whopping 38.3 minutes per game against the Boston Celtics, is an incredible accomplishment considering how much time he was forced to spend away from the court while striving to reach full health.

Thompson averaged 17.0 points per game in the Finals. He got much better defensively the series went on, too, consistently stymying both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown when the Celtics stars tried attacking him one-on-one. Maybe Thompson's days as an All-Star are over anyway. Father Time comes for everyone, even players lucky enough to avoid serious injury, and he's already 32.

But don't be surprised if Thompson is better next season than he was in 2021-22 regardless, steeled not just by his proven ability to match up with basketball's best wings in a championship setting, but by all the emotional strength derived from the lowest moments of his legendary career with the Warriors.