The journey of Klay Thompson back to the top of the basketball world is one that is awe-inspiring. In the 2019 NBA Finals, Thompson ended up tearing his ACL after Kevin Durant tore his Achilles in the same series. The Warriors lost the title to the Toronto Raptors as Thompson prepared to spend a season out recovering from the injury.
Thompson was scheduled to return at the start of the 2020-21 season but tore his Achilles in pre-season during a scrimmage. This relegated Thompson to another season on the sidelines, recovering from an injury.
After Thompson’s successful return in January 2022 and the ensuing Warriors title run, Klay has come back to basketball after those injuries pretty effortlessly. However, there was a lot of effort that went into it. This was evidenced by Thompson’s emotion while hugging Warriors doctor Rick Celebrini, the physiotherapist that oversaw Klay’s rehab after Golden State clinched the title.
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We have seen careers of players drastically change after teras to either their ACL or Achilles. Thompson regrettably suffered from both and spent over two years away from playing a game of professional basketball. Winning the title upon his return makes all the countless rehab sessions worth it.
The fact he has made such a seamless return to the sport shows that whatever he did during his rehab was extremely effective. Credit for that goes to Dr. Celebrini as he worked endlessly to make sure the world got the old Klay Thompson back and not a shell of the player we all grew to love.
Klay still has parts of his game to improve, but that can be attributed to his shooting, which was a little inconsistent for his standards this season. Now that he is back in the flow and has an off-season where he can work on his game instead of focusing on rehab, Thompson will look to come back even better than how he played this season.
