Klay Thompson to miss entire season
The 2020-21 National Basketball Association season hasn’t even started yet, but the Golden State Warriors have already lost one of their biggest stars for the duration of the campaign. On Thursday afternoon, the team announced that superstar guard Klay Thompson would be out for the entire season after suffering a tear to his right Achilles tendon.
The injury occurred on Wednesday during a workout in Southern California with the MRI on Thursday morning confirming the worse. Thompson is expected to make a full recovery though and should be back to start the 2021-22 season according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
“Klay has a strength of will but right now it’s a tough day for him,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers said, via ESPN. “It hurts. He’ll get to a place, I think, where he’s on the road. But right now, like you or I or anybody, this is a tough day for him to hear that news. It’s hard. It’s tough.”
“How your peers feel about you in life I think says more than anything else. And I really believe that. And I think that he is admired within. He’s admired without. And you can’t put in words what he means to our team. What he means to our fans, our coaching staff, his teammates,” Myers said.
While sources remain adamant that Thompson will make a full recovery and be ready to go for next season, the same was thought of the 2020-21 season after the guard sat out all last year. The 30-year-old injured himself in game six of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors and did not participate at all this past season with an ACL tear in his left knee.
Thursday’s announcement was devastating for both the player and the franchise.
“I can’t sit here and say I feel good,” Myers said. “I have confidence in our players. I have confidence in our coaches. I have confidence in our ownership. We’re going to keep moving. We’re never going to stop. But to be truthful, it hurts. It hurts me and I know it hurts our organization.”
Golden State missed out on the postseason last year, after reaching the NBA Finals for five consecutive seasons. They won three championships over that period, with Thompson playing a big role in all five runs.
Thompson was originally drafted 11th overall by the Warriors in the 2011 NBA Draft featuring in 66 games in his rookie season. In his second year he started all 82 regular season games for the Warriors already cementing his place in the squad. He was named to the All-Star game in his third year where he also went on to help Golden State win their first championship since 1975.
The upcoming NBA season will commence on December 22nd after the NBA and NBAPA agreed to a deal earlier in November. There will be 72 regular season games as opposed to the normal 82, but the league has also announced a play-in tournament that will feature seeds 7-10 in each conference prior to the playoffs starting.
