Golden State Warriors superstar guard Klay Thompson finally made his long-awaited return to the court for the first time in nearly 31 months as he was sidelined from separate ACL and Achilles injuries, and dropped 17 points in Golden State’s 96-82 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliaers.
Thompson was greeted by a passionate and loud Warriors crowd, who gave him quite the warm welcome and cheered on his performance, highlighted by a vicious dunk on both Lauri Markkanen and Dylan Windler.
“I will never forget the reception that Warriors fans gave us, especially myself,” Thompson said, according to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “Gosh it was fun and it was worth every single day of being away and in that squat rack or on that shuttle board and all the conditioning days. It was worth every single moment.
“I am not going to say equivalent to winning a championship,” Thompson descrived. “But man, it was pretty freaking close.”
“To know that I can still do that [dunk] and being able to just get to my spots and rise up and shoot?” Thompson said. “It’s only up from here.”
“I’m just so happy right now,” Thompson said. “I did not shoot as well as I wanted to, but I am just so happy that I can even look at the stat sheet and see my name there and all the stats again.”
“That was awesome. I love our Warriors fans. I know they were hurting for me the last two years. That was special. I knew it was going to be electric tonight. I tried to visualize this moment for years really. Gosh it was worth every second. … I am very thankful for that ovation and the love that they showered me. I will never forget that.”
