The NBA world and especially the Warriors’ fans were stunned when they first got the news about Klay Thompson’s departure to the Mavericks, marking the end of the ‘Splash Brothers’ in the NBA. Now, nearly a season after his departure, Warriors veteran Draymond Green has revealed his perspective on the situation that led to Thompson’s unfortunate exit from the Warriors.
In his recent interview with Rich Kleiman of the Boardroom, Draymond Green revealed why Thompson really left the Warriors for the Mavericks and how he found out about it. He spoke at length [from 33:27 onwards] during the interview about his relationship with Thompson now, and more on where the personal met the business side of their relationship.
“Putting the business aside, that’s my brother. We created ourselves together, so our names are synonyms. Like what we’ve all been able to accomplish, there is no ‘man, remove this guy; it still happens’, it doesn’t. The pieces were just like a match made in heaven, and the relationship.”
“Like me and Klay are the same age, you know. Klay is less than a month older than me, and so we’re related on so many different levels,” said Green.
“And the relationship that we have… I actually talked to Klay more today than I did when he played with me, because what you end up realizing is like when you see somebody every day, we don’t need to talk on the phone. But then a week goes by, you’re like, “Yo, I ain’t talked to Klay.”
“And what I will say is Klay will also contact me, which is like I would have never imagined Klay would just be calling me out of the blue. You know, he’ll call me out of the blue and talk about something for an hour and a half, and it’s like, man, I love that’s our relationship.”
“That something could be bothering him in his life, and he’s going to call me and talk about it for an hour and a half. I’m so grateful that that’s the relationship we’ve built.”
“So to think about the journey without him, it s**ks,” said Green candidly about what life has been like without Klay Thompson on the Warriors. “Like, don’t get me wrong, like I love my teammates and we like we’re on our own journey and he’s on his own journey, but just talking holistically.”
“Like, for someone that you accomplished so much with over the course of 11 years, and then and by the way, that’s just not an NBA championship. That’s also a gold medal, right? Like, we’re synonymous in so many different ways. To like see that break up, sucked.”
Green then went on to reveal how he found out that Klay Thompson had decided to sign with the Mavericks. While he was happy for Thompson that he would still get to contend for a championship alongside Luka Doncic (at the time) and Kyrie Irving while trying to find his joy again, a part of Green was very sad to see the 12 years they spent as teammates come to an end.
“Now, here’s where you put the business side, and the personal also comes into play. When he called, I could see the pain he was in. You know, the last year he was here, it wasn’t Klay. Like, he didn’t have his same joy.. You know, he didn’t have everything that made Klay, Klay. He didn’t have it.”
“And so in sitting back and watching your brother struggle like that, and I don’t mean play, I mean struggle with what he feels about himself, what he feels about the situation. To me, that was hard,” said Green while detailing Thompson’s struggles.
“And so when he called me and said, ‘Dray, I’m leaving.’ I was in the car with my wife and my kids. And when he first called, I said [to my wife], ‘This Klay, he’s about to tell me he’s leaving,” and I answered the phone.”
“And he said, ‘Dre, I’m leaving,’ I was like, ‘Man, where to?’ He’s like, ‘I’m going to Texas.’ I was like, ‘Texas? Which team? Houston.’ He said, ‘No, going to Dallas.’ And I was like, ‘Uh, that’s different for you.”
“It was a landlocked city. Everybody knows Klay loves the water. He was like, ‘Man, I just think I need something different, Dray. You know, I’ve been in California pretty much my whole life. I just want to go try something different, and I think Dallas would be a great way for me to try it. Still have an opportunity to compete for championships. You know, they got Luka, they got Kyrie. Like, but I just think it’s the right thing for me.”
“Now, in most cases, you’d be like, ‘Man, you sure? You know, we can still do that.’ And I was just like, that’s great. I’m so happy for you. Because no part of me wanted to try to talk him into staying, because I knew he needed that so much for himself. Like, it was so much bigger than, man, I just want to finish with you guys and finish as a Warrior. He needed that for himself.”
“And being a good brother, you’ve got to see past yourself in our situation and what we’ve got. And sometimes it’s right, and I said 11 years, it was 12 years. Sometimes it’s right to just support and move on and be like, you know what, because this is the right thing for you, I can accept it and move forward with it.”
“And that’s what I had to do in that situation. Like the absolute wrong thing to do would have been to try to talk him into staying. Because the reality is, he didn’t need to. He needed to go. Because he needed that to feel like Klay Thompson again. And the most important thing for me as his brother is for him to feel like Klay Thompson.”
Draymond Green joined the Warriors in 2013 when Thompson was entering his third season in Golden State. They won four NBA championships together and were on multiple All-Star teams together as well. Thompson averaged 19.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in the 793 games he played during his time with the Warriors. He shot 41.3% from the three-point line, thus earning the ‘Splash Brother’ title with Curry.
While Warriors fans probably still miss having a lethal Klay Thompson in his prime alongside Stephen Curry on their roster, Draymond Green is delighted that Klay Thompson is on his own journey to find his happiness and fulfillment in what is left of his career.
