Klay Thompson’s fellow Splash Brother, Steph Curry, laid his emotions bare Tuesday morning posting a series of photos commemorating his time together with Thompson on the Golden State Warriors.
“Gonna miss you @klaythompson,” Steph Curry wrote in an Instagram Story post this morning. “Even though we won’t finish the journey together, what we did will never be done again.”
He added, “Couldn’t have imagined a better run with you and [Draymond Green]. Changed the whole Bay Area. Changed the way the game is played.”
Curry’s posts, which include a couple dozen photos of him with Klay and Draymond from the time they were just starting out to the present, come after Monday’s news that Klay has agreed to a $50 million contract with the Dallas Mavericks and will be headed to Texas next season.
After 13 seasons with the Warriors, and after winning four championships alongside friends Steph and Draymond, Klay is no doubt feeling some emotions too.
But his free agency came just after a fairly disappointing season on the team, and it became clear that that other teams were going to offer him a better contract to cap off his storied career.
On Monday, the New York Times/Athletic reported that Thompson had previously told Curry not put pressure on the Warriors ownership to re-sign him. And it seems this was in part due to the fact that Thompson did not adjust well this season to being benched as much as he was in favor of younger players. Reporter Anthony Slater points to a couple of games in particular, including one December game against the Clippers in which Thompson seethed with rage and “whacked a cup rack behind the bench to the ground and needed to be pulled back by Curry” after the coaching staff pulled him from the closing lineup for the first time in his career.
So maybe he just decided it was time, and money wasn’t the only deciding factor.
In any event, fans are sad, Steph Curry is sad, and Klay is probably sad too.
Slater’s piece points to a quote from Thompson during an end-of-season interview in which he said the future was up to the owners, but, he added, “At the end of the day, whatever happens, it’s all gravy. It’s been such a freaking special run.”