WHENEVER STEPHEN CURRY watches a Dallas Mavericks game, he says it’s a “natural instinct” for his eyes to follow Klay Thompson around the court.
“Happened last night, actually,” he said.
Curry sat down with ESPN this week in the tunnel outside the Golden State Warriors‘ home locker room. Curry pointed out that it was the location where, back in 2022, Curry’s oldest son, Canon, delivered his “Hello, Klay Thompson” line that became a viral video representing the Splash Brother connection.
“One of my favorite memories,” Curry said.
One night after scoring 48 points in Portland on Sunday, he was resting at home with Canon, who is now 7 years old and slightly more aware of the complexities of the NBA world.
They flipped on the Mavericks game against the Utah Jazz. Curry roared after Thompson hit two of his four 3s — “Shoot it, Klay!” he yelled — early in the fourth quarter, sparking Canon’s curiosity.
“Hello Klay Thompson” – Canon Curry 💛💙 https://t.co/Fyt0hraXQ9 pic.twitter.com/E8pxBO0vp2
— NBA (@NBA) December 11, 2022
“Klay’s playing?” Canon asked. “Why are you here?”
Curry reminded Canon that Thompson is in Dallas now. He left the Warriors.
“Those are the moments it hits,” Curry said. “Things have evolved in life. But there are reminders of how special of a thing it was and also a reminder of how unfortunate … the reality of what it is right now.”
Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green once discussed the dream of riding it out together with the Warriors, where they won four NBA titles. When Green sees social media or television graphics referring to him and Curry as the league’s longest-tenured duo, he shakes his head.
“It should be trio,” Green said. “That’s weird to me.”
But circumstances change. Injuries altered Thompson’s career. The ACL and Achilles tears in 2019 and 2020, respectively, stripped away NBA basketball from him for 941 days. He returned and helped Golden State win a title in 2022, but the ramifications set in motion his eventual departure.
“This was a guy who felt he left it all out there for [team owner] Joe [Lacob] and the organization, and was then viewed as damaged goods,” one league source said.
Thompson is midway through his second season with the Mavericks, who last season traded Luka Doncic, the player Thompson most wanted to join. They’re currently out of the Western Conference postseason picture and the Warriors, at 13-14, aren’t too much further ahead, having stumbled because of injuries, age and simmering discontent.
Thompson and the Mavericks return to Golden State on Christmas Day (5 p.m. ET, ESPN), bringing the NBA’s most surprising separation again into full view. Seventeen months after the split, multiple sources told ESPN, reflection and regret has thawed some of the frost, despite some lingering bitterness about how it ended.
“I wish he was still here,” Curry said.
IN FEBRUARY, SIX days after the Warriors traded for Jimmy Butler III, they flew from Milwaukee to Dallas in the middle of a six-game trip. Curry and Green were glowing about the immediate impact of their newest co-star.
But this particular stop was about confronting their past.
“I was like, I’m making sure I get over there,” Curry said.
Curry decided far in advance that he’d spend the night before this matchup at Thompson’s house and helped organize a dinner that included Green, assistant coach Chris DeMarco and Thompson’s friends. Thompson sent him the address. He ordered an Uber for both Green and himself to get there.
“Man,” Thompson said. “I had to move to Texas to get this guy to come over to my house.”
The mood was light. Thompson broke out the chessboard and Binho, a tabletop soccer game. Curry gravitated toward the putting green. They competed. They caught up. Thompson showed them his favorite nearby bike route.
“We didn’t need to address any feelings or his departure or anything like that,” Green said. “It was friends kicking it. He’s showing us, ‘Yeah, this is my life here.’
“But you could tell he’s trying to come to grips with it. It was odd for him.”
There was something cathartic about the dinner, Curry said, calling it an “acknowledgement of the finality” of the situation.
“I didn’t go there for that,” Curry said. “But that’s what it turned into.”
They hung out at Thompson’s house “deep into the night,” Curry said, and left with a renewed appreciation of all they’d accomplished regardless of how abrupt and frosty the exit might have been.
“You don’t spend 12 years with your friends and then that just fades,” Thompson said. “That was a really fun moment of last season, [which] was pretty up and down.”
So much about Thompson’s professional identity is tied to his run with the Warriors, as he reminded a chirping Ja Morant last month. Curry saw Thompson’s altercation with the Memphis Grizzlies and disliked it.
“The idea that he is carrying the Warrior success no matter what jersey he has on, I do like that part of it,” Curry said. “But I don’t like people taking shots at him when he doesn’t have that coverage and he doesn’t have his guys with him.”
It hit Green similarly. Two nights later, he saw a clip of Thompson getting into it with a Miami Heat rookie, reminding Myron Gardner he couldn’t “sit at my table.” Green could only watch through a phone.
“That’s two instances in a row I saw him arguing by himself,” Green said. “What the f—?”
THE NIGHT AFTER dining together as old friends, the former teammates were rivals again.
Thompson scored 17 points, intercepted a Green pass early in the fourth quarter and blocked a Curry floater in crunch time. The Mavericks won 111-107.
Word filtered to the Warriors that Thompson spent the minutes afterward celebrating in the home locker room and blustering about the mistake the Warriors had made chasing others instead of prioritizing him.
“To be expected,” Green said recently. “I heard about some of the stuff he was saying. We played with Klay for 12 years. We know the type of emotion he has.”
There was a retaliatory nature to it. Three months earlier, in Thompson’s first game against the Warriors, Curry made a dagger 3 in the closing moments and yelled to the camera what appeared to be: “You better stay here!”
“That’s why we won championships together,” Green said. “We all got that side to us. You don’t win at the rate we did if you don’t got that.”
Curry confirmed his message that night.
“That was my way of expressing how much this place means to me,” he said. “And how much I want to only be here.”
Thompson once felt the same way, but his career took a different path.
He infamously tore his ACL in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals, soaring for a third-quarter dunk attempt during one of his patented scoring surges, putting his body on the line in an effort to bring the franchise a fourth title in five years — even hobbling back onto the court and hitting two free throws before departing for the hospital.
One month later, the franchise gave Thompson a five-year max contract extension, a pledge of loyalty that eventually became a point of contention between him and management, league sources said.
In the years that followed, sources said, Thompson heard that Lacob was telling several people Thompson should be grateful the Warriors had given him the deal, while also grumbling about his declining performance. Thompson had torn his Achilles in an unsanctioned pickup game away from the facility and later acknowledged he could’ve treated his ACL rehab more carefully, but believed he’d done more than enough for the organization to earn that contract and future loyalty.
That set the stage for contentious extension negotiations in the summer of 2023 that went nowhere and an angsty contract season with the Warriors in 2023-24, which included a midseason demotion to the bench and several behind-the-scenes blowups from Thompson after certain coaching decisions.
“When I was in the Bay, when I put that No. 11 jersey on, I think any performer would tell you, any athlete, that you hold yourself to a certain standard,” a reflective Thompson told ESPN this month. “When you’ve broken records, when you’ve set records, when you’ve experienced the highest peaks the sport can offer — and you think that’s just the normal — I was always searching for that in Golden State.”
The Warriors maintain that they offered Thompson a two-year, $48 million extension in the summer of 2023, though Thompson’s side never believed it was as genuine or tangible as portrayed. In the lead-up to free agency in 2024, there was minimal communication between Thompson and the Warriors. He played golf with Lacob, but the topic wasn’t broached.
The Warriors aggressively pursued free agent Paul George and told Thompson he’d have to wait until other business was settled. An offer was never made. Thompson took it as a hint that he was a distant part of their plans.
Feeling deprioritized, he started to search elsewhere, lining up the Lakers and Mavericks as possible landing spots. Thompson made the ultimate choice to leave, but sources around Thompson said he felt pushed out in a strategic manner.
Lacob sent Thompson a thread of his favorite pictures and moments from his career after he decided to leave. Lacob immediately announced that the Warriors planned to retire his No. 11 jersey and the organization put on a memorable celebration for Thompson in his first return game.
“People kind of understand from both sides some of the issues that, yeah, kind of happened,” Lacob said days before Thompson’s November 2024 return. “But I do think everyone still loves the history. You can’t take away what he meant to the franchise. Honestly, to me as an owner — very, very important. He’s the first guy we ever drafted. I’m not just saying this. I really did feel like he was a son. … Regardless of anything — how it ended, didn’t end. Whatever. That doesn’t matter.”
Thompson opted for Dallas and the Warriors worked it into a sign-and-trade, which got him a bit more money. But he didn’t love how management tried to squeeze Dallas at the end for extra value, league sources said.
“It’s all good, my man,” Thompson said. “I’m still trying to win. I don’t even — what they do doesn’t even concern me. I still got my eyes tight. I still got my eyes set on the goal, and that’s to give myself the best chance to win again. So whatever they do, whatever transactions they make in business, has no bearing on how I feel.”
Though his relationship with his long-time former teammates remains sturdy, his feelings toward management are still a bit cold.
“[The Warriors’ front office] got the outcome they wanted,” another league source said.
0:18
Thompson leaves arena on crutches
Klay Thompson walks with the help of crutches and his left knee wrapped up after leaving Game 6 due to injury.
SITTING AT HIS stall in the FedExForum visitors locker room after the Mavericks were eliminated in last season’s final Western Conference play-in game, Thompson sighed deeply and dropped his head when he heard the question.
If he knew in the summer how much change would be made in Dallas, would he have still signed with the Mavs?
“Don’t do this to me. Don’t do that to me. Don’t do that,” said Thompson, who turned down more money from the Los Angeles Lakers because he believed Dallas presented his best chance to win another championship.
“That’s kind of a ridiculous question because I don’t own a time machine and don’t believe in going back or looking back. If I did that my whole career, I would not be where I’m at, and I wouldn’t have been able to persevere through two really hard injuries. So, I’m here in Dallas, and I enjoyed my time, and I’m looking forward to the future.”
Thompson reported to training camp in Vancouver, British Columbia, this fall with renewed optimism. He spent the summer preparing for a season instead of figuring out his free agency destination. His personal life was bliss with his relationship with rapper Megan Thee Stallion, which had recently become Instagram official.
“That always makes things a little better, being in love,” Thompson said after one practice at Simon Fraser University.
At that point, Thompson believed the Mavericks could contend for a title with No. 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg joining the core.
The optimism didn’t last long, as Dallas got off to a disastrous start amid lingering fan outrage stemming from the Feb. 2 trade that sent Doncic to the Lakers, eventually resulting in general manager Nico Harrison’s firing on Nov. 11.
Thompson, who had struggled mightily in a starting lineup that featured Flagg at point guard and sorely lacked shot creation, had lost his starting job after seven games. He was pulled from the lineup after shooting only 31.8% from the field, including 26.2% from 3-point range, with Dallas ranking last in offensive efficiency.
It’s a move the coaches probably would have made earlier, if not for concern about how Thompson might respond to a reserve role. On this occasion, unlike his final season with the Warriors, he took the decision to bring him off the bench in stride.
“What made the change in Dallas easier is being able to rebrand myself — a new number, a new team, a new experience,” Thompson said recently. “Being here in Dallas just gave me a chance to reinvent myself and not hold on to those ghosts of the past of trying to be great. …
“So now here in Dallas, I’ve been so much more at peace just knowing like, look, man, whether I start or whether I come off the bench, I’m going to play. I’m going to make an impact in Year 15. That’s an incredible thing to do.”
Thompson has rediscovered his sweet stroke, shooting 40.7% from 3-point range over the past month as the Mavericks have gone .500 in 14 games. Dallas’ new front office is expected to explore his trade market near the deadline. Thompson’s desire is to play for a contender, league sources said, but the $17 million owed to him next season could make him challenging to move.
“The circumstances have changed since I signed here — I mean, obviously the personnel,” Thompson said. “But we still have a very talented team, and at the end of the day, I’m playing to win and nothing’s changed. My goals remain the same.”
The highlight of Thompson’s season so far was a vintage performance in a Nov. 29 comeback win over the LA Clippers, when he scored 17 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, the sort of scoring flurry that used to come frequently for him.
That was the second night of a back-to-back after a loss to the Lakers, and Thompson was listed as out because of knee soreness on the first injury report the Mavs released that afternoon. In classic “Captain Klay” fashion, he changed his mind after taking a ride on his new boat — named “The Stallion” — and jumping in the Pacific Ocean water.
He spoke wistfully that night about accepting that he’s in the twilight of his career and appreciating the opportunity to help a special prospect like Flagg grow as he begins his NBA journey. He compared himself to Byron Scott, a three-time champion with the Showtime Lakers whose last season in the league was spent helping teach the ropes to a rookie named Kobe Bryant.
“What I’ve learned, though, even in Year 13, 14 is control what you can control and the basketball gods will reward you.”
0:28
Klay Thompson walks in to ovation from Warriors employees
Before playing Golden State, Klay Thompson returns to Chase Center to an ovation from Warriors employees.
WHEN THE MAVERICKS visited San Francisco for a third time last season, the Warriors held a jersey retirement and postgame ceremony for Andre Iguodala, scheduled on Feb. 23 in part to allow Thompson to attend.
The Mavericks were blown out, but Thompson — through gritted teeth — grumbled his way to a courtside seat for a portion of it before leaving the arena.
“It sucked because we got freaking smacked,” Thompson said. “That wasn’t fun. Then it’s definitely mixed emotions, man. Freaking blood, sweat and tears in that uni.
“Ran through a wall for that, for those guys, like, literally. Especially in an era where being out there every night isn’t really at the top of the priority list.”
Did he feel those blood, sweat and tears were fully appreciated?
“Only time will tell,” Thompson said.
Curry brought up the name Scottie Pippen as a cautionary tale. Pippen’s legendary run with the Chicago Bulls ended unceremoniously and those wounds never seemed to fully heal. Curry doesn’t want that with Thompson and the organization.
“I didn’t want that to be a part of our collective story nor something that he has to carry that robs him of great memories of his 13-year experience,” Curry said. ” I hate that that’s part of the narrative.”
Curry said, at minimum, he’d expect a ceremonial one-day contract for Thompson to close out his career with the Warriors. But Thompson still appears to have a few years left. Could a reunion and at least a final season or two with the Warriors be possible?
“I don’t know,” Thompson said. “That’s a long ways away, man. That’s a lot of basketball to be had. I don’t know what the future holds.”
Those around Thompson say they believe it could eventually happen because “there’s no one that carries more weight with Klay than Steph,” one league source said.
But Curry would have to push for it.
“It would be unbelievable,” Curry said of the idea. “If that time comes and that conversation is had, of course I’m calling him and saying, ‘We want you back.’ And hopefully that would be a welcome message to him. But as we stand right now, that does seem like a far distant reality. But so did him leaving.”
