Thompson won’t play next season
Bob Myers called Stephen Curry to break the devastating news that Klay Thompson had torn his Achilles and would miss another season. Silence on the other end.
Myers, the Warriors GM, made the same call to Draymond Green. Again, only quiet.
Thompson tore his right Achilles tendon playing in a pickup game Wednesday and had an MRI exam Thursday in that revealed the severity of the injury that typically requires surgery. Right after Thompson worked himself back from knee surgery in early July 2019, now this, another year on the sideline.
The Warriors aren’t ready to say what the next steps are for Thompson until they know more.
“What hurts the most — and speaking on behalf of Klay, we will move on and we will be OK and he will be OK — but what hurts the most is the time we put into our jobs, the sacrifices we make to do what we do and to do what he does,” Myers said. “And for him to have to now not be able to play basketball, that’s the pain. That’s the pain we feel, the pain we feel for him.”
Dear friend and former teammate Zaza Pachulia spoke to Thompson and assured him he would endure this, and offered some perspective that things could be far worse as they currently are around the world during this pandemic.
The injury is a huge blow for the Warriors, who were an 15-50 last season as they struggled without Thompson and at times without Curry as he nursed a broken left hand that sidelined him for more than four months.
Thompson didn’t play at all during the coronavirus-shortened season as he worked back from surgery for a torn ACL in his left knee. He suffered that injury in the Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals.