Mavs’ Klay Thompson celebrated by Warriors in Bay Area returns

SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson’s bottom lip quivered a little as he stood on the Chase Center court and watched the tribute video the Golden State Warriors made to honor him as he returned to face his former franchise for the first time.

Stephen Curry, Thompson’s teammate for all of his 13 years in the Bay Area, stationed himself in the tunnel by the home bench as the video played, wanting space to protect himself from getting too emotional. Draymond Green, the other member of all four of Golden State’s championship teams in this era, had watched the video earlier to keep the emotions from getting to him in the moment.

As the crowd showered Thompson with an extended standing ovation after the video, he managed to keep his composure. He knew it wouldn’t have been possible if Curry gave a midcourt speech as originally planned as part of the festivities honoring Thompson. Therefore, Thompson wrote his “Splash Brother” the night before when they agreed to cancel the speech and just let the fans express their appreciation.

“I was prepared for it,” Thompson told ESPN after the Dallas Mavericks’ 120-117 loss to his former team in a thrilling NBA Cup opener Tuesday night. “I didn’t want to cry.”

Thompson had already been caught off guard when approximately 400 Warriors employees, wearing the captain’s hats given away to fans as a nod to the guard who famously sailed across the bay for home games, lined the aisle to give him a hearty welcome as he almost stepped into the arena. three hours before tip-off. He couldn’t help but break out into a big smile as he took the unfamiliar stroll to the visitors’ dressing room.

He was showered with appreciation during his pregame shootaround more than an hour before tipoff as thousands of fans watched from the stands, many wearing Thompson’s old No. 11 jersey and some holding signs welcoming him back to the Bay Area. Curry went through his routine on the other side of the court at the same time, and the longtime backcourt buddies kept glancing at each other, a scene Curry likened to the awkwardness kids felt on a playground blacktop at halftime.

Then the sellout crowd roared for Thompson as teams walked through the layup lines, recognizing all of his accomplishments during his Golden State tenure and “the aura about him that connected our fans to him immediately,” as Warriors coach Steve Kerr said pregame.

“It was a really cool experience,” Thompson said. “I really appreciate the fans. The captain’s hat ended up being a great touch because I’m such a passionate sailor. So many familiar faces in the crowd and it was a heartwarming feeling. It was really cool to see the fans, their gratitude against myself – and something I will never take for granted, so it was very, very amazing.”

This was far from just “another regular season game in November,” as Thompson claimed it would be when discussing his return to the Bay Area after the Mavs’ Sunday loss in Denver.

“I hope you guys didn’t believe him,” Curry said, smiling after his 37-point performance helped keep Thompson from winning in his comeback.

The pregame ceremony was special. Thompson described playing against Golden State for the first time as “surreal.”

His competitive interactions with Curry were especially entertaining. It started right away when the Mavs called a play for Thompson on the opening possession of the game when he caught a pass on the left wing and posted Curry.

“I blacked out on that one,” Curry said. “I didn’t want to let him score and I beat him.”

Thompson made those free throws, the first two of his 22 points, which matched his season high for the Mavs. He was 6-of-12 from 3-point range, highlighted by a sequence midway through the second quarter when he drained 3s on consecutive possessions. He responded to the first of those back-to-back 3s with a shoulder shimmy, pushing the celebration that Curry has made famous over the years.

“It was an impromptu thing, but when you feel it, you do things instinctively,” Thompson said. “I’ve done it before. I know Steph has done it a lot of times, so it was a fun little playful thing to do. He was a little surprised that I did it, but it was a good shot and it I will probably still do that in the future, I played my best ball brand when I play loose.”

With a smile, Curry chastised Thompson for the shimmy coming out of the next timeout. He also targeted Thompson with some trash talk after hitting a duck-1 floater over him with seconds left in the first half.

“That’s the competitive nature,” Green said. “You don’t win four championships together without that competition. He has, we’ve had forever. It’s always going to happen. When you play against your brother, people always talk about, oh man, why are they so close , when you play against someone you’re close to, you want to beat them even more.”

Thompson heated up again in the fourth quarter as the Mavs built a seven-point lead. He had seven points in 2 minutes, 16 seconds, hit a 3 to give the Mavs the lead, drove for a layup to answer a Golden State bucket on the ensuing possession and hit a transition 3 that led to a Golden State timeout with 5:16 left.

But Curry got the last word, scoring 12 points in the final 3:10, including a stepback 3 over Dallas center Dereck Lively II with 28.5 seconds left that he punctuated with his “Night, night” celebration.

“It was a night to remember for sure,” Curry said. “I know myself from July, when Klay decided to go to Dallas for us to go to training camp and he wasn’t here, that it was kind of like a slow build to this night for everybody… And granted, that we won, so I can say this, but I couldn’t imagine it going any other way, he played well, the crowd got a great show, it came down to the wire reflecting on the 13 years he was here , and the four championships and all that we accomplished, and then the page turned to where we are right now.”

Thompson embraced Kerr moments after the final buzzer. He then exchanged hugs with Curry, Green and a host of Warriors players, coaches and staff.

After Thompson finished his postgame press conference, he donned one of the captain’s hats made for the evening and strolled into the Warriors’ weight room to greet several Golden State employees.

“Change is happening,” Thompson said. “It’s happened to a lot of great players who have won championships together. But yeah, it was surreal and a night I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, it was a tough loss. It could have easily gone our way, but that’s life and I think we’ll see the Dubs three more times, so there’s plenty more games ahead, which is the fun part.”