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Tim MacMahon, ESPN Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson‘s bottom lip quivered a bit as he stood on the Chase Center court and watched the tribute video the Golden State Warriors made to honor him as he returned to face his former franchise for the first time.
Stephen Curry, Thompson’s teammate for all 13 of his years in the Bay Area, stationed himself in the tunnel by the home bench while the video played, wanting space to protect himself from getting too emotional. Draymond Green, the other member of all four of Golden State’s championship teams during this era, had watched the video earlier to prevent the emotions from hitting him in the moment.
As the crowd showered Thompson with an extended standing ovation after the video, he managed to keep his composure. He knew that wouldn’t have been possible if Curry gave a speech at midcourt, as was originally planned as part of the festivities to honor Thompson. That’s why Thompson texted his “Splash Brother” the previous night, when they agreed to cancel the speech and just let the fans express their appreciation.
“I was prepared for it,” Thompson told ESPN after the Dallas Mavericks‘ 120-117 loss to his former team in a thrilling NBA Cup opener Tuesday night. “I didn’t want to cry.”
Thompson had already been caught off guard when approximately 400 Warriors employees, wearing the captain’s hats given away to fans as a nod to the guard who famously boated across the Bay to home games, lined the hallway to warmly welcome him as he entered the arena almost three hours before tipoff. He couldn’t help but break out in a big smile as he made the unfamiliar stroll to the visitors locker room.
He was showered with appreciation during his pregame shooting session more than an hour before tip, when thousands of fans watched from the stands, many wearing Thompson’s old No. 11 jersey and some holding signs that welcomed him back to the Bay Area. Curry went through his routine on the other side of the court at the same time, and the longtime backcourt mates kept looking at each other, a scene Curry compared to awkwardness kids felt on a playground blacktop in recess.
Then the sellout crowd roared for Thompson as the teams went through the layup lines, recognizing all his accomplishments during his Golden State tenure and “the aura about him that connected our fans to him right away,” as Warriors coach Steve Kerr said pregame.
“It was a really cool experience,” Thompson said. “I appreciate the fans very much. The captain’s hat ended up being a great touch because I’m such a passionate boater. Saw a lot of familiar faces in the crowd, and that was a warm-hearted feeling. It was really cool to see the fans, their gratitude towards myself — and something I’ll never take for granted. So it was very, very awesome.”
This was far from just “another regular-season game in November,” as Thompson claimed it would be when he discussed his return to the Bay Area after the Mavs’ Sunday loss in Denver.
“I hope y’all didn’t believe him,” Curry said, cracking a smile after his 37-point performance helped prevent Thompson from winning in his return.
The pregame ceremony was special. Thompson described playing against Golden State for the first time as “surreal.”
His competitive interactions with Curry were especially entertaining. That started immediately, as the Mavs called a play for Thompson on the game’s opening possession, when he caught a pass on the left wing and posted up Curry.
“I blacked out on that one,” Curry said. “I wasn’t going to let him score, and I fouled him.”
Thompson made those free throws, the first two of his 22 points, which matched his season high for the Mavs. He was 6-of-12 from 3-point range, highlighted by a sequence midway through the second quarter when he swished 3s on consecutive possessions. He reacted to the first of those back-to-back 3s with a shoulder shimmy, swiping the celebration that Curry has made famous over the years.
“It was an impromptu thing, but when you’re feeling it, you do stuff instinctually,” Thompson said. “I’ve done it before. I know Steph’s done it many times, so it was a fun, little playful thing to do. He was kind of surprised I did it, but it was a great shot and I’ll probably still do it in the future. I played my best brand of ball when I’m playing loose.”
With a smile, Curry chastised Thompson for the shimmy coming out of the next timeout. He also targeted Thompson with some trash talk after hitting an and-1 floater over him with seconds remaining in the first half.
“That’s the competitive nature,” Green said. “You don’t win four championships together without that competitive fire. He has that, we’ve had that forever. That’s always going to a happen. When you play against your brother, people always talk about, oh man, why are they so close? When you play against someone you are close with, you want to beat them even more.”
Thompson heated up again in the fourth quarter as the Mavs built a seven-point lead. He had an eight-point flurry in a span of 2 minutes, 16 seconds, hitting a 3 to give the Mavs the lead, driving for a go-ahead layup to answer a Golden State bucket on the ensuing possession and hitting a transition 3 that prompted a Golden State timeout with 5:16 remaining.
But Curry got the last word, scoring 12 points in the final 3:10, including a step-back 3 over Dallas center Dereck Lively II with 28.5 seconds remaining that he punctuated with his “Night, night” celebration.
“It was a memorable night for sure,” Curry said. “I know even from July when Klay decided to go to Dallas to us showing up for training camp and him not being here, it was kind of like a slow build to this night for everybody. … And granted we won going so I can say this, but I couldn’t imagine it going any other way where he played well, the crowd got an amazing show, it went down to the wire. Can’t really draw it up any better — and definitely special memories to reflect on the 13 years he was here and the four championships and everything that we accomplished, and then turned the page to where we are right now.”
Thompson embraced Kerr moments after the final buzzer. He then exchanged hugs with Curry, Green and a long line of Warriors players, coaches and staff members.
After Thompson wrapped up his postgame news conference, he donned one of the captain’s hats made for the evening and strolled into the Warriors weight room to greet more Golden State staff members.
“Change happens,” Thompson said. “It’s happened to plenty of great players who’ve won championships together. But yeah, it was surreal and a night I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, it was a tough loss. Could have easily gone our way, but that’s life and I think we’ll see the Dubs three more times. So there’s plenty of more battles ahead, which is the fun part.”