Why ex-Warrior Livingston is Klay’s truest spirit brother

Why ex-Warrior Livingston is Klay’s truest spirit brother originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Shaun Livingston and Klay Thompson were Warriors teammates for five seasons, but they’ll forever be spirit brothers, decorated members of the NBA’s inspirational comeback battalion.

Both sustained devastating injuries that forced them to come face to face with career mortality. Both climbed from the depths of despair to become significant contributors on Golden State championship teams.

So, he knows the road Thompson had to travel after sustaining a torn ACL in June 2019 and a ruptured Achilles tendon in November 2020. It was 941 days later that Thompson returned to the court.

Livingston, having retired and moved into an executive role with the Warriors, was a very interested observer.

“We all wanted Klay Thompson to be the person that he was before he went down with that injury,” Livingston said on NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Dubs Talk” podcast. “But biology doesn’t always work that way.”

Thompson’s signature shot was a bit less consistent, his once-stellar defense considerably less effective. As he struggled with who he had become, there were more irritable moments than ever before.

Klay’s internal turbulence laid the groundwork for his departure this summer, when 30 months after his January 2022 return to the Golden State lineup he became an unrestricted free agent and signed a three-year contract with the Dallas Mavericks.

“Having to go through that experience and then come back and not necessarily move the same way that you might want to move on the court, it’s frustrating man,” Livingston said. “It’s frustrating. And all the emotions that go into it because as professional athletes, we really dedicate our lives to this.”

Livingston, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2004 NBA draft, was 21 years old, in his third season, when an awkward landing obliterated his left knee in February 2007. He missed one full season and much of two others. It was more than three years before he would play a full season.

More than a dozen years later, Livingston still could feel the physical highs and lows as well as…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-ex-warrior-livingston-klays-214853939.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-08-06 21:48:53

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