Klay Thompson exited the team bus then beamed as he strolled back into Chase Center on Tuesday night, greeted by some 400 cheering Warriors employees who lined up along his path to the Dallas locker room to show their love and appreciation for the former Golden State star.
‘An unreal night’: Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson’s reunion as ‘splash brothers’ on opposing sides
Once the ball was tipped a couple of hours later, Thompson tried to pull off an impromptu shimmy, Stephen Curry-style, as the former Splash Brothers dueled in different uniforms.
The employees who greeted Thompson sported “Captain Klay” hats, the giveaway for all fans on a celebratory night remembering his 13 years with the franchise and four championships he helped win.
“That was really cool,” Thompson said. “I’m very grateful for the employees to give me that kind of love … totally unexpected and definitely put a smile on my face. Something I’ll never forget.”
Those white hats filled Chase Center, where video highlights of Thompson showed in a place where he’s still beloved – and always will be. Curry jogged up to Thompson, now wearing No. 31 with teammate Kyrie Irving in No. 11, and offered a quick embrace in their first words of the day before Andrew Wiggins also hugged his old teammate.
Thompson scored 22 points on 7-for-17 shooting with six 3-pointers but watched Curry shine in the closing moments of Golden State’s 120-117 victory. Thompson high-fived a fan afterward and tossed his white headband into the seats, giving some lucky patron an unexpected souvenir.
Earlier, after a brief jump-rope routine outside the Mavericks’ locker room, Thompson ran out the tunnel and onto the floor to thunderous applause from Warriors fans with phones up to capture the moment of Thompson’s return.
“It was a cool moment to feel the energy from the fans,” Thompson said. “Especially all the chatter that I heard, it was all positive.”
The Warriors invited all their employees to be part of the welcoming committee for Thompson, who joined Dallas in July on a three-year, $50 million contract. Thompson, 34, missed more than 2 1/2 years – the entire 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons – recovering from surgeries on his left knee and right Achilles tendon before making his comeback in January 2022.
