Mavs coach Kidd shares advice he gave Klay ahead of Warriors matchup originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Klay Thompson, the Warriors and Dub Nation are preparing for an emotional day on Tuesday at Chase Center.
The veteran guard returns to the Bay Area to face his former team for the first time since joining the Dallas Mavericks in the offseason, and Golden State will pull out all the stops, including a pregame ceremony and a commemorative fan giveaway, to honor its franchise legend.
Thompson will be prepared for it all, and Mavericks coach Jason Kidd revealed in a Monday interview with 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” that he recently spoke with Thompson about the big game.
“We talked the other day about this opportunity,” Kidd told Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky. “It really doesn’t happen a lot when you do leave a team that you’ve been with your whole career. To have the opportunity to come back and play at the home that he built, with Chase [Center], and also the excitement and the championships over in Oakland at the Coliseum. Just understanding that it’s going to be an emotional two days here when you talk about today with practice and then tomorrow’s game.
“And so my thoughts [for him] were just to enjoy, to embrace it and have fun with it.”
Thompson spent 13 years with Golden State after the Warriors selected him with the No. 11 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. His new coach, the 51-year-old Kidd, actually played against Thompson and longtime Warriors teammate Steph Curry for two seasons before the Hall of Fame guard retired after the 2012-13 season and knows how special the Splash Brothers duo was.
“They’re definitely up there with [the best duos],” Kidd shared. “You’re talking about the Splash Brothers. Just the uniqueness of how they played the game, how they played for one another and helped each other achieve the highest goals and that’s to win a championship.
“For two of the best shooters of all time to be on the same team is unique in its own right, but they loved to play, they knew how to win, they learned how to win. And so, yes, that combination will go down as one of the best combinations in the NBA.”
For the first time on Tuesday, the iconic duo who many believe to be the greatest backcourt in league history, will face off against each other in what should be an emotional night in the Bay.