The Los Angeles Lakers have yet to make any major moves in free agency, but they have made a push for a couple of big names. Arguably the biggest was Klay Thompson, who has spent his entire career with the Golden State Warriors winning four NBA Championships and forming arguably the greatest backcourt in NBA history with Stephen Curry.
The Lakers and Dallas Mavericks battled over Thompson’s services with each franchise meeting with the sharpshooting wing, but it was the Mavericks who won out, agreeing to a three-year $50 million deal, agreeing to a three-year $50 million deal.
And Thompson’s father Mychal, who is a former Laker great and the franchise’s radio color commentator appeared on Sirius XM NBA Radio with Frank Isola and Brian Scalabrine, admitting that he really hoped Klay would join the Lakers:
“Hold your congratulations Frank and Scal, I’m not feeling too much in a congratulatory mood right now. Obviously it’s Klay’s decision, it’s his life, he’s a grown man, 34 years of age just like we were at 34 at one time Scal, Frank and our fathers used to give us advice and we would choose our own path and that’s fine, that’s what life is supposed to be about. But I’m really disappointed. I was hoping, HOPING, as you can assess, that he would be a Laker. And it was close, it came down to the Lakers and the Mavs, but the Mavs won out. But you know me, I was hoping and praying he would finish his career with the Lakers.”
Like Thompson said, as a father all he can do is give advice, but it was ultimately Klay’s choice and he chose to join the Mavericks. Mychal made it clear that he sold the idea of Klay joining the Lakers as it is something they had spoken about in the past, but he accepts his son’s decision:
“When he told me that the Lakers were gonna talk to him, and the Mavs too, obviously I tried to sell playing for the Lakers. Obviously that’s the right thing for me to do and the proper thing for me to do and I felt like that was the correct thing for me to do because I really believe in this franchise. The franchise has been so good to me and my family, including Klay. He grew up a Lakers fan, he grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant like most players his age, most kids his age. I just thought it seemed like it would be the perfect fit for him to finally come back home. Because we always talked about him playing for the Lakers if he was not a Golden State Warrior, where else would he want to play. And of course, being a fan of Kobe’s, he would have loved to have played for the Lakers. But he had a chance and when the chance came he chose the Mavericks instead. I’ll live with it, I accept it and I’m happy for him that he’s happy with his decision, but of course I tried to sell him on the Lakers.”
Despite the franchise’s history with Mychal, and with Klay growing up a fan of Kobe Bryant, it simply wasn’t enough to convince him to join the purple and gold. He made what he felt was the best decision for himself and now it will be up to the Lakers to move to their next plan to improve this team.
LeBron James agrees to max contract with Lakers
While there was some talks about LeBron James taking a pay cut to help the Lakers land a big free agent like Klay Thompson, they were obviously unsuccessful in doing so. Because of that, James will be signing a new contract at or close to his max.
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