Warriors Owner Takes Another Weird Shot At Klay Thompson

The Golden State Warriors’ decision to part ways with Klay Thompson was arguably this NBA offseason’s biggest story

For obvious reasons, because of all Thompson did for the franchise, Warriors brass has been trying to spin it like they didn’t kick the future Hall of Famer to the curb.

Despite him helping bring four championships to The Bay, due to his objectively diminished status as a basketball player, Thompson was low-balled by the Warriors during his most recent contract negotiations. Because he refused to accept the front office’s offer – all parties involved decided to go their separate ways.

In the aftermath, Golden State leaked that Thompson was a problem in the locker room this past season and was having trouble coping with the fact that he wasn’t the same player anymore.

It was pretty ugly.

This week, Warriors owner Joe Lacob took another weird shot at Thompson. This comes on the heels of his little story about the first text message he sent Thompson following his decision to join the Dallas Mavericks.

“To be frank and honest, Klay made the decision prior to the beginning of free agency and he informed us of it that his intention was to not come back,” Lacob told Tim Kawakami. “He called me and said the same things you heard (at Klay’s Dallas news conference). Klay is an open book. He felt he needed for a variety of reasons to have a fresh start.”

“I would love if Klay had been a Warrior for life. And under a fair and equitable basis, we wanted to try to achieve that very badly. We did achieve it with Draymond (last summer), a different situation. Steph’s under the contract. So we felt we were on a path to do that. It just didn’t work out. … And we had to move on and accept that.”

Everyone who watched this situation unfold knows that isn’t how things went down.

Thompson desperately wanted to return to the Warriors. The organization forced his hand by giving him a contract offer considerably below what they knew he wanted.

Hence his exit.

The Warriors and their ownership can spin this situation in whatever way they want, obviously, but fans and spectators know exactly why Thompson is no longer on the team.

Carlos Garcia

A longtime Sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB Games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.