NBA Charge Klay Thompson $12 Million under suspension for breaking the rules… See more
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson headed to the bench with 2:13 remaining in their play-in game against the Sacramento Kings, his head hung low.
He made a round of hugs with team trainers and teammates before he took his seat. After the final buzzer sounded, he took a moment before exiting the court to look back at the Kings lighting the beam.
It was possibly Thompson’s last game with the Warriors.
The 118-94 loss to the Kings sent Golden State into its earliest offseason in three years. And it sent Thompson into unrestricted free agency.
“We need Klay back,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “He’s still got good years left. And I know I speak for everybody in the organization: We want him back. … What Klay has meant to this franchise and as good as he still is, we desperately want him back.”
Thompson didn’t speak after the game, but at shootaround seven hours before tipoff, he said it wasn’t difficult to keep the thoughts of free agency out of his mind as he finished the season.
“That’s life,” Thompson said. “Had so much success here, I’m not going to let whatever future happens make me salty about what I’ve been able to accomplish in a Warriors uniform. I don’t let that seep in at all.”
