Klay Thompson is a foundational piece of the Golden State Warriors’ championship dynasty. Whereas certain players have come and gone, he has remained a mainstay.
One of the guys who did come and go was Kevin Durant. The former league MVP won two championships with the Warriors before ultimately opting to take his talents to the Brooklyn Nets.
Thompson had a front row view to all the drama relating to that.
During a recent appearance on Matt Barnes’ All The Smoke podcast, Thompson got brutally honest about Durant’s decision to leave the Warriors.
“I don’t blame him, we don’t blame Kevin for leaving at all,” Thompson said.
“He is from the East Coast, and if I was on the East Coast and if I was two games away from a three-peat, it’s like, ‘What more do y’all want from me, man? You want a six-peat?’
“If it wasn’t for catastrophic things, we probably would have had three championships in that time, but man, we don’t blame him at all.”
There are a lot of layers to Durant’s decision to leave Golden State. First and foremost, the polite way he did it put the franchise in position to win a title last year. So for that alone, fans should be eternally grateful.
Stephen Curry has also been blamed by many of the parties involved for how things went down.
Ja Morant is having himself quite the season. https://t.co/hObThQ4ou4
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 25, 2022
That said, it’s good to see that there is no lingering beef. Thompson seems to understand why Durant did what he did. And if that’s the case – Durant’s other teammates likely do as well.
The Warriors were a special sort of squad with Durant in the mix. But all good things must eventually come to an end.
And that is precisely what ended up happening in Golden State.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
