NBA fans can discuss and debate
at length on which franchise team is this current decade’s answer to the 1990s
domination of the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. There are many who might
agree that the Golden State Warriors could fit the bill. This decade they made
it to the NBA Finals five times, and won the championship thrice, thanks to its
roster of some of the present-day league’s best. Following their defeat in the
latest Finals against first-time champions the Toronto Raptors, a number of
Warrior aces either left for other teams or were sidelined by injury. But for
Klay Thompson, that does not mean his team is washed up.
USA Today has it that Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors is
dismissive of the social media assertion that the former NBA champion team,
suffering from a Finals defeat to the Raptors and missing a number of key
players, has begun a downward slide to mediocrity. He made this pronouncement while
a guest on ESPN Thursday, August 1, in response to opinion that the Warriors
dynasty which elevated the franchise to its 5-Final 3-Championship performance
in this decade is no longer there. The naysayers, he says, are too negative.
"I think that's a little
premature to say that there's no more dynasty,” Thompson says on ESPN adding, “To
say the dynasty is over I think is a little ignorant because I'm going to come
back better and even more athletic. It would not be smart to count the Dubs
out. That's all I tell people." By this he means his own ACL injury, which
he apparently sustained during Game 6 of the ill-fated Finals against Toronto
back in June. It was, according to Thompson, the first time he ever received
the injury in his playing career on the NBA.
And while Klay Thompson himself
is one of the Golden State injuries sure to sit the early part of the upcoming season
out, he notes that the team still has some powerhouses to give it the muscle
against any other franchise out there. He notes Stephen Curry, Draymond Green
and D’Angelo Russell, a multiple-MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and ace
newbie respectively. The Warriors, Thompson points out, were able to win its
championships even before Kevin Durant entered the picture, before moving to
the Brooklyn Nets (and nursing his own injury in the meantime).
Thompson has yet to learn the
best possible time to return to the court following his injury and rehab. The
earliest estimate has been for the second half of the 2019-20 NBA season. But
he is not planning to hurry so that his ACL can mend properly. “I want to play
until I'm 38, 39, 40 years old," he notes.
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