Klay Thompson: No 'sacrifice,' to embrace hate
Klay Thompson doesn’t believe that the Golden State Warriors will have to “sacrifice” after the addition of Kevin Durant during free agency this summer. In fact, that type of talk just motivates him even more.
“I feel kind of disrespected that people keep using the term ‘sacrifice’ to describe me and describe us,” Thompson told The Vertical on Tuesday. “We all want to see each other do well. But I’m not sacrificing [expletive], because my game isn’t changing. I’m still going to try to get buckets, hit shots, come off screens. I want to win and have a fun time every game we play.
“The NBA season can get mundane; 82 games are so long and there can be some boredom. Now, we can embrace being the hated team and getting everyone’s best, and adding some tension every night. It’ll be a fun experience going into arenas on the road, with opposing fans hating what we’ve built.”
Golden State set an NBA regular-season record with 73 wins and led the league in scoring last season, but the Warriors fell just short of a repeat NBA title and lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games.
The 27-year-old Durant, who had spent his nine NBA seasons with the Thunder, announced his decision to join the Warriors on July 4. He won the MVP in 2014, has been named first-team All-NBA five times and has made seven All-Star teams. He has appeared in four Western Conference finals and one NBA Finals, in which he lost in five games to the Heat in 2012.
He joins a Warriors lineup that — in addition to Thompson — features two-time defending league MVP Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Zaza Pachulia and Andre Iguodala.
“We want Klay to stay Klay,” Durant told The Vertical. “We don’t want him to change. The games dictate where the shots come from. I may shoot 12 shots one night, Klay may shoot eight or nine shots one night, and Steph may shoot 25 shots one night. And it could be a different flow another night.”
