Warriors owner Joe Lacob has spoken candidly about Klay Thompson’s decision to leave Golden State after 13 years to pursue an opportunity in Dallas.
“It is very difficult, to be honest,” Lacob remarked during The Athletic’s NBA Show. “I believe everyone knows, and I’ve said it several times, that we truly wanted our Big Three to be Warriors for life and retire at the same time. It would have been an incredible achievement in this day and age. Who sticks with their teams anymore? I grew up, and you probably did as well, anticipating who will be on your team each year.
“That was a cool experience. This was part of
Fandom, the positive aspects of fandom.” “That was a cool experience. That was part of fandom, the positive aspects of fandom.”
Lacob was reportedly one of the key movers of some “cold negotiations” with Thompson, a practice the team frequently employs on players.
But that didn’t work for Klay.
Despite Klay and the Warriors parting ways, Lacob claims he still has a relationship with the former Splash Brother and sounds as sad as any other Dubs fan to see him leave. “I think I’m close to Klay,” Lacob added. “He’s more difficult to get close to than some other males because he leads a rather quiet life, but the public portions are quite enjoyable. He has a knack of amusing people, and they truly like him. I also love him. I’ve always — I’ll just tell you, I used to say I’d never trade Klay Thompson. It bugged me for many years, and there was a lot of media speculation ten years ago when he was supposed to be moved for Kevin Love. Someday, when I write my own retrospective, I’ll amend some of the facts about what actually transpired. “But it’s simply inaccurately portrayed. My gut feeling has always been that Klay would never be anything other than a Warrior. And I assumed he wanted to do the same thing; I believe he did. Unfortunately, Bob Myers would always say that it never ends well. It’s simply unfortunate. It’s just the way things are. Things get in the way, and circumstances win. So, this is a pretty difficult process. His injury, coming back from the injury, that he didn’t play for two and a half of the five years of the deal, and finally came back and really worked hard to get there “All I can tell you is that we love him. When they all retire, there will undoubtedly be a statue of this person. I did not want that to happen, but it happened.”
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