Golden State Warriors stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson apparently never spoke to each other during the 2011-12 NBA season.
Thompson talked about his rookie season with Curry and the Warriors on Los Angeles Clippers forward Paul George’s podcast.
“I don’t think me and Steph said a word to each other, to be honest,” Thompson, who was drafted by the Warriors with the 11th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, said. “Steph only played 20 games that year. I was riding the bench the first three games of the year. I was a shooter off the bench backing up Monta (Ellis) and Dorrell (Wright) and stuff. Your rookie year is just one big learning experience. You don’t know what to expect one night. I’m like (Warriors) coach (Mark) Jackson’s punching bag at times because I’m the rookie which is fine. I can take it.
“I don’t really have that many stories about Steph from my rookie year (with the Warriors) because we didn’t really speak that much. I was so quiet. When you’re a rookie, you don’t want to step on the vets’ toes. I was like the anti-Draymond [Green]. Draymond came in, he was just yapping the whole time and he was making his presence felt. I was just kind of in the background like, ‘I’m going to do my work like a quiet assassin and just observe.'”
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The Warriors won only 23 games during the 2011-12 season. They didn’t have their breakthrough until the 2012-13 campaign when they won 47 games and made it to the 2013 Western Conference Semifinals. Thompson told George that he and Curry started to become close during the summer of 2014 when they were teammates on the FIBA World Cup Team and the rest is history for the Warriors icons.
“Our relationship didn’t really build until our third year when we played with Team USA and finally hung out off the court because we had nothing else to do,” Thompson, who wants to retire with the Warriors, said. “We were in the Canary Islands and we had nothing else to do. So we went and played golf. We finally got to know each other on the golf course.”
Curry and Thompson are now very close friends. The two Warriors sharpshooters have won four championships and played in six NBA Finals together. Curry and Thompson are arguably the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history and both guards will go down as Warriors legends.
The Warriors will retire Curry’s No. 30 jersey and Thompson’s No. 11 jersey one day. Both players will also make the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Curry has career averages of 24.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 6.5 assists with the Warriors, while Thompson has career averages of 19.8 points, 3.5 boards and 2.3 assists with Golden State.
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The Warriors lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2023 Western Conference Semifinals in six games. Golden State’s front office traded Jordan Poole to the Washington Wizards for Chris Paul this summer. The Warriors are expected to start Curry, Paul, Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green next season.
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