Golden State Warriors star shooting guard Klay Thompson opened up about his mental health during the two and a half seasons he missed due to injury in an appearance on the Point Forward podcast with teammate Andre Iguodala and former NBA player Evan Turner.
“You wanna do what you’re used to back in that mode of playing, but you kinda forget about what got you to that point, and that’s all the days where I couldn’t play basketball and had to do the most tedious work,” Thompson said. “I wasn’t the happiest teammate during those days, so I appreciate you, ‘Dre, and everyone else on the team. I was really irritable. Now that I look back on it, I was kind of childish, man.”
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Thompson’s injury timeline started all the way back on June 13, 2019, when he tore his ACL in Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors. Without Thompson, Golden State went on to lose that game and the series, giving Toronto their first ever NBA championship.
Thompson’s bad luck continued in November of 2020, when after months of rehab and training Thompson tore his Achilles while training in Southern California. This would push back Thompson’s return to the court for another 13 months.
Thompson had his long awaited debut post-surgery in 2022, in a Jan 9 contest against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Thompson announced his return with a powerful poster dunk, finishing the game with 17 points in 20 minutes of play. Now that Thompson and the Warriors are back on top of the basketball world, the future looks bright, and hopefully injury free, for the young sharpshooter.