Draymond sums up Klay’s excitement for return in best way originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
It’s not hyperbole to say that the entire basketball world is overflowing with excitement for Klay Thompson‘s return to the Warriors.
That excitement is likely 1,000 fold for Thompson, who hasn’t played in an NBA game in almost 1,000 days. That excitement apparently got the best of Thompson on Wednesday as he passed out on training table after the Warriors’ loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
“If you don’t feel it within the team, you feel it from Klay daily, all day by the second,” Green said about the excitement within the team about Klay’s return. “He’s in there knocked out right now on the training table asleep. I said, ‘Man, all that energy he has been oozing out all day, it done wore him down.’ He’s in there knocked out. Like, literally, snoring and everything.
“You can definitely feel it amongst the team. Everybody is excited, the fan base is excited. Like I said the other day, everybody who is a part of the basketball world is excited. So you can definitely feel it, for sure. It’s been long-awaited and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so it’s good.”
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Green has witnessed every step of Thompson’s rehab journey and knows how grueling the climb back to the NBA has been for his friend and teammate.
“It means everything,” Green said when asked what it will mean to see Thompson back on the court. “I know what he has gone through. I’ve seen it firsthand. The good days, the bad days, the days where he comes in bouncing off a wall and talking to everybody non-stop and won’t shut up, and then days where he doesn’t have a word to say to anybody. That’s just that roller coaster, right? I can only imagine what he is going through.
“So, I’m excited for him. He deserves it. That’s a guy who has given all he can to this game. Obviously, it’s unfortunate what has gone on, but he has the opportunity to be healthy and come back and that’s what we all wish and hope for. So, I’m super excited for him, for us as a team, but like I said, more importantly for him. No one has endured what he has endured the last two-and-a-half years the way he has. So, I’m excited for him.”
It has been 938 days since the Warriors’ championship core was whole. Soon, perhaps by Sunday, that number will go back to zero, and Thompson will rejoin Green and Steph Curry on the hardwood, his long journey back to the NBA finally complete.