Thompson won’t play next season THE QUOTE
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.
“Got on the range and see a little rainbow out there. I start thinking about Mia and said, ‘Hey, let’s have a good one.’ ”
— Colombian golfer Camilo Villegas, whose 2-year-old daughter died in July from tumors on her brain and spine, after his opening-round 6-under 64 to share the lead at the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic in Georgia
5
Years since Rafael Nadal advanced to the semifinals at the ATP Finals before earning a spot in the last four Thursday with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over defending champ Stefanos Tsitsipas. Nadal has never won the season-ending event. Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev already advanced to the semis. The winner of Friday’s final round-robin match between No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev gets the final spot.
THE NUMBER