For Warriors’ Thompson, sitting is agony
Warriors guard Klay Thompson, white bandage wrapped over his fractured right thumb, spent the second quarter of Wednesday night’s 117-106 win over the Lakers helping call the action with his father, Los Angeles’ longtime radio analyst, Mychal.
During a commercial break, Mychal asked his middle son how he would handle being sidelined the next couple of weeks. Klay had played 530 of a possible 543 regular-season games before being ruled out against the Lakers. Now, as Golden State tries to catch Houston for the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed without him, Klay is coming to terms with having to miss extended time for
first time in his basketball career.
“It’s going to kill me,” Klay, his voice trailing as he gazed at the court below, told his dad during halftime Wednesday. “I’m not used to this.”
Thompson is one of the most durable players in the NBA. Toward the end of his third season, he missed a 103-94 loss to Cleveland to attend his grandfather’s funeral, ending the league’s second-longest active games-played streak at 214 games. It was the longest such streak to start a career in Warriors history.
The first game Thompson missed because ofdue to injury came eight months later, when he was sidelined for a 107-95 loss in Phoenix with a strained right hand. It was nothing serious: Forty-eight hours after watching that defeat to the Suns, Thompson scored 29 points in a loss to San Antonio.
Before Golden State announced Wednesday that he would miss at least a week — and most likely, longer — with a fractured right thumb, Thompson had missed only one game (rest) this season. His 530 games played since the start of the 2011-12 season are second in the NBA to Clippers center DeAndre Jordan’s 531.
“He won the genetic lottery,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said of Thompson. “He’s a big, strong, healthy guy. Some guys are just blessed with a type of resilience. It’s amazing as a coach to be able to count on that.”
Thompson is well-schooled on the importance of showing up. As a kid, his dad — a former NBA center who won two championships with the “Showtime” Lakers of the 1980s — regaled him with stories about the unyielding will of Magic Johnson and James Worthy. The message was clear: Unless a player is dealing with a major injury, he should do whatever possible to help his team win.
By the time Thompson was a pre-teen, he was obsessed with emulating his idol, Kobe Bryant. Thompson noticed how Bryant seldom missed games and did not ask for rest.
In the summer of 2006, Thompson — then a rising junior in high school — was putting up shots at UC Irvine when Bryant walked in. After slogging through a rigorous workout with Bryant, Thompson hung in the gymnasium, peppering Bryant with questions about how to keep his body in maximum condition year-round.
One of the most important things, Bryant told him, was to limit his activity outside of workouts and games. Nights out can take a toll on a player come tip-off. In the grind of an NBA season, fatigue makes him more prone to injury.
Thompson didn’t miss a game in high school or at Washington State because of injury. Over his seven NBA seasons, he has come to appreciate relaxing at home. Off days often are spent playing fetch at a park with his English bulldog, Rocco.
It also helps that Thompson’s playing style limits contact. A master at moving away from the ball, he is a jump-shooting metronome: plant, catch, release.
Perhaps Thompson’s most serious injury until now came in the 2015 Western Conference finals, when he was diagnosed with a concussion in Golden State’s series-clinching Game 5 win over Houston. Eight days later, Thompson logged 39 minutes in the Warriors’ Game 1 victory over Cleveland in the NBA Finals.
“He’s been very blessed to avoid any big injury,” Mychal Thompson said. “I always tell him never to take that for granted.”
After he fractured his right thumb in the second quarter of Sunday’s loss to Minnesota, Thompson — eager not to further deplete an already injurythinned roster — stayed in the game, finishing with 21 points, five assists and four rebounds in 40 minutes. Now, with 14 regular-season games left, Golden State’s training staff is being cautious with him to ensure he’ll be at his best in the playoffs.
A day after Kerr told reporters he expects him to miss “a couple weeks,” Thompson promised a media scrum after practice Thursday, “I’ll be back sooner than you think.”