Though he’s yet to build on a breakout 2014-15 campaign in the season’s early going, it’s still safe to say that many across franchises across the NBA would love to make Klay Thompson their cornerstone. The 25-year-old sharpshooter is already among the basketball’s best two-way wings, and there’s reason to believe his game has yet to finish flourishing. He’s a star, basically, the kind of player that many teams build around both on and off the court.
Thompson, however, occupies a much different role for the Golden State Warriors. He takes a backseat to not just Stephen Curry in terms of the defending champions’ individual hierarchy, but also the ever-improving Draymond Green. As his playing prime dawns, Thompson seems more likely to settle in on Golden State’s dominant periphery than emerge as a full-fledged superstar alongside the reigning MVP.
Good thing for the Warriors, then, that he doesn’t seem to mind. In a piece by Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, Thompson says he far prefers his team’s collective success to the specter of being an alpha dog elsewhere.
“Winning is so much fun, man,” Thompson said. “It’s one thing to put up numbers and be the top guy on a team and it’s another thing to sacrifice and be on the best team in the NBA. I’ll take the latter every time. We have a lot of guys in this locker room who could be franchise players for other teams. That doesn’t matter. At the end of the day people are going to remember championships. That’s what it’s all about.”
The notion that multiple players on Golden State’s roster are capable of leading their own team is hyperbole, but Thompson’s overarching point still stands.
It began when Andre Iguodala accepted his move to the bench without incident before 2014-15, and continued as David Lee played good soldier throughout the season despite Green taking his spot in the starting lineup while the former All-Star was injured. Winning a title hasn’t changed the Warriors, either. Upon his recent return from a broken nose, incumbent starter Andrew Bogut made it clear a potential return to the first five in place of the ascending Festus Ezeli was of no concern whatsoever.
After Golden State beat the Cleveland Cavaliers last June to win its first title in 40 years, Steve Kerr – who remains on leave while managing complication from offseason back surgery – said his team was one marked by sacrifice more than any other attribute. And the more we learn about the utterly dominant Warriors, the more obvious that reality becomes.
(Via Sports Illustrated)
