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Klay’s dad, Mychal, explains how Jerry West ‘saved’ Warriors dynasty originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
In the wake of Jerry West’s death on Wednesday, Mychal Thompson explained the Hall of Famer’s huge impact on the Warriors organization and his son Klay Thompson.
Speaking on the “Murph & Markus Show” on KNBR on Thursday, Mychal described how integral West was to keeping Klay in Golden State despite the Warriors considering trading him early in his NBA career.
“Basically he’s the man who saved the Warriors dynasty because if it wasn’t for Jerry West, Klay would not have been a Warrior,” Thompson said. “After a couple of years, he and Harrison Barnes would have been playing for Minnesota [Timberwolves].
As has been well-documented, the Warriors were rumored to have explored the possibility of trading Thompson to the Timberwolves for All-Star forward Kevin Love.
But as former Warriors president and general manager Bob Myers noted earlier this week, Golden State never came close to making that trade, as they never requested Love’s medical records.
West was a part of Golden State’s executive team, joining the franchise in 2011 and staying through 2017, helping the Warriors build the core of its championship dynasty.
The elder Thompson was asked if the story about West threatening to leave the Warriors if they traded Klay was true, with Mychal explaining how West pushed back on the potential trade for Love.
“He was so opposed to that trade, even though at the time Kevin Love was an All-NBA player at the time averaging like 27 [points per game] and 14 [rebounds per game] for the Minnesota Timberwolves,” Mychal explained.
“He was a dominant frontcourt player and the Warriors thought that partnering him up with Steph [Curry] would take them to the next level. Who knows, maybe it would have, maybe they would have won a title together. But Jerry West saw the potential in the Splash Brothers, and he said ‘If you move one of those guys, I’m out of here too.’ ”
West’s intuition proved correct as the younger Thompson formed one of the greatest backcourt duos in NBA history with Curry, with…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/klays-dad-mychal-explains-west-191806781.html
Author : NBC Sports BayArea
Publish date : 2024-06-14 19:32:19
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