{"id":106227,"date":"2024-11-11T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T13:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=106227"},"modified":"2024-11-11T06:58:44","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T11:58:44","slug":"klay-thompson-honored-highly-anticipated-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/11\/klay-thompson-honored-highly-anticipated-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors\u2019 Franchise Legend to be Honored During Highly Anticipated Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

It should come as a surprise to no one that when Klay Thompson<\/a> makes his highly anticipated return to Golden State on Tuesday, November 12th, his former team will have something special planned for him. Thompson\u2019s return was always going to garner a tribute of some kind. Only now, the specifics of said tribute are being defined.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As reported by ESPN\u2019s Kendra Andrews, the Golden State Warriors<\/a> will welcome back Thompson with a special \u201cSalute Captain Klay\u201d night. The Warriors will award every fan in attendance with a special Thompson captain’s hat. Of course, this is a reference to the former Warrior guard\u2019s fervent passion for boating. Both meme\u2019d <\/span>and celebrated, Thompson\u2019s routine of commuting back and forth from Chase Center via boat struck such a cord with fans\u2014both in the Bay Area and abroad\u2014this choice of tribune feels warranted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Golden State to Honor Franchise Legend During Return<\/b><\/h2>\n

Greater Context of Klay Thompson\u2019s Return<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> and Warriors have both enjoyed varying levels of success early on, with records of 5-5 and 8-2, respectively. Thompson is trying to fit in with the Mavericks, averaging 13.8 points per game. While the Warriors haven’t seemed to miss a beat despite now only being home to one \u2018Splash Brother\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite numerous reports<\/a> claiming a level of disrespect felt by Thompson during the time of his departure, there’s no reason that perceived \u2018bad blood\u2019 should resurface during his return to the Bay. While Thompson has shown clear affection and gratitude toward his new home<\/a>, his true NBA home will always be Golden State. When he returns to play the Warriors for the first time in his career, the overwhelming emotions will be love and admiration\u2014from both parties. For Golden State fans, Thompson has meant far too much for far too long to be greet him with anything but all out cheers. Although the game is sure to be competitive and hard fought\u2014keep an eye on Draymond Green<\/a> to make a concerted effort to hit Klay with a hard screen at some point\u2014Golden State is going to embrace Thompson like an old friend once the final whistle blows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last Word<\/b><\/h3>\n

There’s nothing like watching an all-time great player go against his former team for the first time. Whether it’s LeBron James<\/a> returning to Cleveland, Kevin Durant<\/a> returning to Oklahoma City, or most recently, Damian Lillard<\/a> returning to Portland. Some players are met with tribute videos, while others are met with boos. Some receive a variation of both. Regardless of the specifics, a high profile player returning to play his former team always makes for an elevated viewing experience. At least from the audience\u2019s perspective, the atmosphere and intensity that is sure to be in the Chase Center on Tuesday, November 12th, will not be all that dissimilar to a playoff setting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, with the expectations that both these teams have, and the way they’re both playing, don\u2019t be surprised if Tuesday night is a preview of things to come. As exciting as Thompson\u2019s return is sure to be, just imagine a whole series of him squaring off against his former team. It is well within the realm of possibilities that the Mavericks and Warriors could face each other in the first round of the playoffs. Most likely, a potential meeting between the two teams would be either a matchup of the four-seed vs the five-seed, or the three-seed vs the six-seed. Regardless of whether the Mavericks and Warriors ultimately end up meeting up down the line in the playoffs, Tuesday night is sure to be a revealing and memorable night. One in which both Thompson and the Warriors will likely never forget.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It should come as a surprise to no one that when Klay Thompson makes his highly anticipated return to Golden State on Tuesday, November 12th, his former team will have something special planned for him. Thompson\u2019s return was always going to garner a tribute of some kind. Only now, the specifics of said tribute are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5268,"featured_media":106277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,30,25,62,3],"tags":[187,69,70,38],"class_list":["post-106227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-warriors","category-nba","category-news","tag-damian-lillard","tag-kevin-durant","tag-klay-thompson","tag-lebron-james"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}