If you thought beating the Golden State Warriors this season—who last I checked have the best offense in the league, the stingiest defense in the league, and an NBA-best 15-2 record—was already nearly an impossible feat, things are about to get infinitely worse for the rest of the NBA with the imminent return of one Klay Alexander Thompson.
From ESPN:
Golden State Warriors swingman Klay Thompson participated in a full team practice on Tuesday for the first time since tearing his left ACL in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals and his right Achilles in November 2020.
Yes, you read that right: Klay is on the comeback trail from not one, but two devastating, back-to-back injuries that have kept him off the court for the past two regular seasons. And while that’s definitely cause for alarm, reportedly the five-time All-Star looks great as he continues to work his way back from a pair of injuries that most players never come back from.
And he sounds giddy as shit about it, too.
“It’s so exciting,” Thompson said. “Just to be running up and down the court and playing basketball, it’s truly a blessing and it makes coming to work so easy. The boring stuff’s behind me, and now it’s just getting back in game shape—I got to stay patient because I can be an overeager person to get out there and play, but I’m just incredibly grateful to be out there. The work the training staff and I have done over the last two years is really paying off, and it’s hard to put into words how grateful I am to be playing basketball again.”
The three-time NBA champ was cleared for 5-on-5 work last week; and while word on the street is that he could be back to terrorize the league with his sharp shooting and tenacious defense sometime around Christmas, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr insists that a specific date hasn’t been set.
“We don’t have a target date,” Kerr said. “What we have is a number of weeks ahead of us for certain where we’re going to play it out, keep letting him scrimmage as often as possible so that he’ll build that endurance. And I would think within a few weeks we’ll be able to finally sort of get a target date, but we don’t have one right now.”
Translation: “Y’all know y’all are in trouble, right?”
I know I’m not the only one who can’t wait to see Thompson finally, finally return to the court; it’s just unfortunate that it will come at the cost of the dignity of the rest of the league.