Stephen Curry and Steve Kerr have made peace with Klay Thompson’s exit

Curry and Thompson, dubbed the Splash Brothers as they established themselves as the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history, won four championships and reached six NBA Finals since teaming up in 2011. With Kerr taking the reins in 2014 and Draymond Green captaining the defense, Golden State reached five straight finals from 2015 to 2019 and won an NBA-record 73 games during the 2015-16 season. Though Thompson missed the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons with ACL and Achilles’ tendon injuries, the Warriors bounced back to win the 2022 championship.

“It sucks,” Curry said Sunday after a USA Basketball training camp session, when asked for his reaction to Thompson’s departure. “It’s one of the hard things to process just because I never imagined this would be the reality. I always wanted to ride out into the sunset with [Thompson and Green] and have an opportunity to stay relevant from a winning perspective while we did it. … I just want him to be happy. He deserves that. He deserves to enjoy playing basketball for however long he wants to play. It does suck that it won’t be with us.”

Entering this summer, Curry (15 years), Thompson (13 years) and Green (12 years) were the NBA’s longest-tenured players with the same organization, and Kerr (10 years) was the NBA’s third-longest-tenured coach. But Thompson, 34, chose to sign a three-year, $50 million contract with the Dallas Mavericks after more than a year of unsuccessful negotiations with Golden State. His departure opened a new chapter for the free-spending Warriors, who looked to trim payroll and avoid the NBA’s new punitive “second apron” salary tier.

Kerr, who succeeded Gregg Popovich as the U.S. team’s coach following the Tokyo Olympics, thanked Thompson for “13 incredible years” shortly after Olympic training camp opened Saturday at UNLV.

“Going through it all together has been so meaningful and so amazing,” Kerr said. “We’re going to miss Klay. We wish him the best. These things rarely go like you want, where you get to draw it up and execute it and everybody goes out together. We were hoping that could happen, but it didn’t. We wish Klay well. We love him, and we’ll miss him.”

The writing appeared to be on the wall last season, when Thompson was shifted to a bench role for the first time since his rookie season and averaged fewer than 20 points for the first time in a decade. In what proved to be his last game with the Warriors, he went scoreless and shot 0 for 10 from the field in a play-in tournament loss to the Sacramento Kings.

Kerr said Thompson concluded he needed “a fresh start,” adding that the five-time all-star struggled to adjust after injuries cost him two years of his prime. The Warriors, who already had signed Curry and Green to long extensions, didn’t make Thompson an offer that was to his liking in 2023, and the sides never gained much traction before free agency opened.

After he signed a five-year, $189 million maximum contract in 2019, injuries prevented Thompson from recapturing his all-star form, particularly on the defensive end, which affected his market value. Curry said he was kept abreast of major updates during Thompson’s contract negotiations, which dragged out over almost 18 months. Thompson, however, instructed Curry not to intervene on his behalf.

“That doesn’t mean I listened to him,” Curry said.

But once Thompson decided to join the Mavericks, Curry didn’t put up a fight.

“He was in need of a change,” Curry said. “It wasn’t a situation where I felt I needed to try to convince him to stay. He knew exactly what he meant and still means to our organization, to me as his teammate and to Draymond. It’s one of those deals where you have to trust that he’s making the right decision for himself.”

Thompson, who last season averaged 17.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 38.7 percent on three-pointers, will join a Dallas team that made an unexpected run to the Finals before losing to the Boston Celtics in five games. With Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving in place as the lead ballhandlers, Thompson will function as an auxiliary shooter who can help fill the hole created by starting forward Derrick Jones Jr.’s departure for the Los Angeles Clippers.

“Prior to [his injuries], Klay didn’t need a lot of counseling,” Kerr said. “The last couple of years, he’s needed it. I’m amazed at his ability to come back from those injuries to help us win another championship and play at the level he’s played at. It’s funny: People say he had a bad year, but look at his numbers. A lot of guys with those numbers sign for $220 million these days. Klay has been an incredible performer for us. The last couple of years, there’s no doubt, they’ve been very tough on him. We’ve all tried to help him through those times. It makes sense in his heart to get a different change of pace, change of location, get out of California and go play on a different team.”

During the Warriors’ heyday, Thompson was Curry’s relatively quiet and quirky sidekick, known for his clutch shooting, love of boating and his dog, Rocco. His career highlights included making 11 three-pointers in a Game 6 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2016 Western Conference finals, scoring 60 points in just 29 minutes in a 2016 victory over the Indiana Pacers and making an NBA record 14 three-pointers in a 2018 win over the Chicago Bulls.

Thompson, a 2011 lottery pick out of Washington State, ranks sixth on the NBA’s three-point list and has made at least 10 three-pointers in a game nine times, the most of any player besides Curry in NBA history. The Warriors announced last week that his No. 11 jersey will one day be retired and hang in the rafters at Chase Center.

Golden State began the process of moving on by acquiring defensive-minded guard De’Anthony Melton, do-everything forward Kyle Anderson and wing shooter Buddy Hield. The Warriors waived guard Chris Paul before free agency in a cost-cutting move, leaving Curry to return from his first Olympics to a team that will look vastly different.

Kerr, a five-time champion as a player, was a member of the Chicago Bulls’ “Last Dance” team that won the 1998 championship before Michael Jordan’s second retirement led to a roster splintering. The dissolution of the Bulls’ dynasty helped Kerr take a pragmatic approach to Thompson’s departure.

“I haven’t ever had fantasies that this thing would go on for another five or six years, and Steph, Klay and Dray would retire together, and I would retire with them,” Kerr said. “There’s never been that thought. I’ve been around the league a long time, whether in Chicago or other situations, and it’s never easy when these things start to run out. The biggest thing is that the relationships endure and the memories endure. Klay is going to have a statue outside Chase [Center] someday. He’ll be beloved by his teammates, coaches and fans forever.”