After starting for the previous 12 years, the 34-year-old Warriors veteran was asked to come off the bench in Utah, where he had experienced an unwanted start to his sixth-man existence. It would take considerably longer to fully embrace this kind of career-altering choice, even with Thompson’s impressive 35-point performance on February 15th, which helped Golden State defeat the Jazz ahead of the All-Star break. The feelings were still quite fresh.
Given that Thompson’s free agency is approaching this summer and the Warriors and he haven’t been able to agree on an extension in recent months, this was already a delicate scenario. And now, he was being asked to make a sacrifice for the sake of the group, on top of all the existential problems already centered around respect and worth.
That is, a much-needed surprise morale boost from the Basketball Gods.
Bird had spent part of his All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis speaking with great admiration about Thompson, as Thompson would learn through Warriors PR man Raymond Ridder, and would eventually see for himself on that cellphone video that he will cherish and save in his digital archives for eternity.
The comments were made at the annual Tech Summit, when Bird and renowned broadcaster Bob Costas discussed a wide range of basketball topics. When the former Celtics star was questioned about the players he liked to watch, the discussion changed in Thompson’s favor. Then Bird went lyrical about the five-time All-Star who was absent from the celebrations for a sixth straight season, sharing the NBA Finals stage with Klay’s father, Mychal, when the Lakers won it all in 1987.
Bird said, “One of my favorite players has always been Klay Thompson.” “What a fantastic shooter.”
Bird continued his recollections of Thompson’s amazing performance on December 5, 2016, against his Indiana Pacers, in which he scored 60 points in three quarters with only 11 dribbles of the ball.
Bob, how do you do that? Bird, who was in charge of the Pacers front office at the time, remarked, raising his voice in shock, to Costas. “How do you achieve that? .. That seems fairly amazing to me.