PLAY DAY WITH KLAY
Warriors star puts aside sore leg to celebrate with fans during parade
OAKLAND >> Sometimes, Klay Thompson walked with a limp. Other times, he walked while slightly hopping on only his right leg. Other times, Thompson walked and accepted the pain.
“I can’t feel my ankle,” Thompson said. Thompson kept walking anyway. He had nursed a left leg contusion ever since Cleveland guard J.R. Smith crashed into him in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and yet Thompson kept playing in that game and beyond.
The obvious reason: Thompson wanted to help the Warriors win their third NBA championship in the past four years. The Warriors completed that goal in a four-game sweep against the Cavs, but Thompson still gutted it out. He wanted to celebrate during the Warriors’ championship parade on Tuesday through downtown Oakland.
Therefore, Thompson often hopped off one of the Warriors’ double-decker buses, walked along the barricaded streets and greeted fans with high fives, autographs and champagne baths. Even if he admitted feeling pain through the team’s nearly 90-minute parade, Thompson leaned on championship euphoria and alcohol as antibiotics.
“I’m sore now, but it was worth it,” Thompson told this publication afterwards. “It was just like
I played a 40-minute game. But after this, I can get off my feet. I can rest. And I can enjoy this sun and get a tan for once.”
Before then, Thompson enjoyed the sun on one of the Warriors’ doubledecker buses. Once Thompson hopped on the bus at 11 a.m., he created a new hashtag. Thompson became #ParadeKlay nearly a summer after showing a similar persona as #ChinaKlay during a promotional trip in China.
Before the bus moved, construction workers tossed their hard hats to Thompson for an autograph. While enjoying a cigar, Thompson signed a hard hat, threw it back to a construction worker down below and then caught another one. He signed about 10 of them before the bus left. No wonder the Warriors have lauded Thompson for excelling in catchand-shoot opportunities.
“I’ve never seen that before. That’s pretty cool,” said Mychal Thompson, the former Showtime Laker that has attended championship parades as both a player (1987, 1988) and a proud father (2015, 2017, 2018). “Just to see the love the fans have for the Warriors, they remind me of Lakers fans with how loyal they are and how much passion they have for their team.”
Klay Thompson showed just as much passion for his fans.
On one turn, Thompson led one group of Warriors fans with “Sweep” chants. At another turn, Thompson prompted another group of Warriors fans to greet teammate Zaza Pachulia with “Zaza” chants. On other turns, Thompson soaked in the confetti blowing in his face and the “Warriors” chants ringing in his ears. Thompson frequently tossed Warriors’ T-shirts and signed basketballs into the crowd. He once threw a perfect bounce pass that a young fan caught behind a barricade.
Thompson then offered a championship prediction through the bullhorn: “We’re going to win five or six more!”
The greatest hits happened when the bus stopped. Thompson would grab a champagne bottle with one hand, a bullhorn with the other and then get off the bus and greet fans. Thompson then brought new meaning to his “Splash Brothers” nickname.
He doused Warriors fans with Luc Belaire Brut champagne.
At one stop, Thompson was so engrossed with shaking hands with a group of Warriors fans that he almost knocked into a police officer sitting on a motorcycle. At another stop, Thompson posed with a Warriors fan that held a Fathead of a crying LeBron James. And on another stop, Thompson took a picture of himself with a group of Warriors fans with a selfie stick.
“It’s hard to put into words,” Thompson said of the fan support. “You make people happy. That’s honestly why we play.”
And it is why Thompson continued celebrating.
Thompson spent some private some time with
Mychal toward the back of the bus. Soon enough, Klay wanted to interact with more Warriors fans. He encouraged fans who were drinking to chug. He called one young Warriors fan “the next Steph Curry.” He may or may not have intentionally yelled through the bullhorn with Pachulia standing within earshot.
How can Thompson top parade Klay? He plans to go to China on June 22 for about 10 days. Last year, Thompson mixed business (shooting clinics, Anta promotional appearances), gaffes (missing a 360-degree dunk and airballing a 3-pointer at a local clinic) and nightlife (dancing).
“I don’t know how I’m going to follow up with an encore,” Thompson said,
smiling. “But I will not be attempting any 360-dunks this year. Maybe some basic two drop-step [dunks]. Other than that, I will just have fun out there show my fans a great time and show them what it’s like to be a professional.”
Klay showed his professionalism throughout the 2017-18 season.
He averaged 20.0 points, while shooting 48.8 percent from the field and 44 percent from 3-point range. He posted 35 points in a Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against Houston. Despite his ankle injuries, Thompson shot efficiently in Game 1 (8 of 16) and Game 2 (8 of 13) against Cleveland before laboring in Game 3 (4 of 11) and Game 4 (4 of 10, three fouls,
two turnovers).
“It showed you how mentally tough and competitive he is,” Mychal Thompson said. “It showed me how much winning matters to him. He was not going to let a sore ankle deter him from the team’s goal.”
Because of those qualities, the Warriors plan to offer Klay an extension before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2019. He is under contract for the 2018-19 season for about $19 million.
“I’m just thinking about today,” Klay said. “I’m just thinking about what I’m going to put on the grill after this.”
Klay has said he wants to re-sign with the Warriors. Though he might take a hometown discount, it appears
unlikely he will immediately accept an extension in hopes to maximize his earnings.
“They’re not going anywhere. He’s not going anywhere. No reason to hurry anything,” Mychal said. “We’ll worry about that next summer when the time comes, see where we are and where the team is and everything. Right now, you just want to bask in this championship victory.”
Klay did just that. All he needed was a close friend (Pachulia), a supportive father (Mychal), a bullhorn, champagne and legions of Warriors fans cheering for him. Those ingredients provided the perfect remedy for Thompson’s hurt left ankle, and it kept encouraging him to push through it.