LOS ANGELES — During NBA All-Star Weekend, we had a chance to talk to a few different basketball luminaries about different aspects of pro wrestling, since wrestling fans are everywhere. We talked to Charles Barkley about his longtime friendship with Ric Flair, we asked Kevin Love about being the most WWE-obsessed player on a notoriously WWE-centric Cavs team, and we also got a chance to pick Klay Thompson’s brain about the sleeper WWE Superstars that might be lurking in the league.
During the Team Steph interview scrums on Media Day, we posed Thompson with a stumper of a question that initially stopped him cold: who’s the biggest pro wrestling fan on the reigning NBA Champion Golden State Warriors?
It took Thompson a few moments to ponder the question, as he earnestly turned it over in his mind. “The biggest pro wrestling fan I know is Mychal Thompson,” he said, singling out his father by emphasizing just how passionate the elder Thompson is about the noble grappling arts. (After all, we’re talking about the same Mychal Thompson who was so nervous about Klay’s Finals Game 7 in 2017 that he opted to watch WWE Raw instead.)
But Klay quickly returned to the question as initially presented, and thought about which of his teammates is most passionate about WWE. “On the Warriors, that’s a great question,” Thompson said. “Probably, like, Steph.”
Yes, the biggest pro wrestling fan on the Warriors might be one of the biggest sports stars in the world, and a two-time NBA MVP. The scrum around Stephen Curry, however, was far too dense to try to traverse to see if he agreed with his Splash Brother’s assessment, so that will have to wait for another time.
So we asked Thompson which NBA player, in his estimation, might follow in the footsteps of Ronda Rousey (and, inevitably, Rob Gronkowski) and have a second career as a WWE Superstar after leaving basketball behind. Again, Thompson took some time to ponder the question, as it’s clear he thinks there are many suitable options.
“Probably Draymond or DeMarcus Cousins, just because they have the attitude for it,” he said. “They’re good entertainers. I think Joel Embiid would be good too, because he’s a monster of a man. I mean, there’s so many good options. There’s a lot of guys with great personalities in this league, who would shine on that kind of stage.”
Embiid is a very, very strong choice, and actually already has ties to WWE. He was lovingly recreated by fans in WWE 2K, he has borrowed Triple H’s iconic entrance before an NBA game, and even once received a shout-out from Triple H himself.
So pencil in Joel Embiid for that future WWE career, but good lord, don’t ever count out Draymond Green when it comes to enthusiastically putting the hurt on someone.
