The Los Angeles Lakers went into free agency with one major target and that was former Golden State Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson, who had decided to part ways with the team he spent the first 13 years of his career with, winning four championships and establishing himself as one of the game’s all-time great shooters and three-and-D guards.
The Lakers were hopeful that Thompson’s connection to the franchise — via his father Mychal Thompson — as well as his fit next to LeBron James and a strong contract offer would be enough to sway him. But he ultimately went with the team that was favored all along in the Dallas Mavericks. He signed a three-year, $50 million deal to join Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving after their run to the NBA Finals.
And while reports appear to confirm that the Lakers offered Thompson more money and more years than the Mavericks, he chose Dallas because he reportedly felt that going from the Warriors to L.A. wouldn’t provide enough of a fresh start, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:
James had several deep conversations with Thompson about the idea of playing together, sources said.
But something about playing for the Lakers apparently felt too much like playing for the Warriors. As one source close to him put it, “Would this be trading one fishbowl for another?”
The Lakers and Warriors are in relatively similar situations. They have both struggled to build out competitive rosters around their stars over the past two years after winning championships and have seemingly made poor front office decisions at every turn.
For the Lakers, the difficulty has been attracting free agents and having the requisite assets to make trades. For the Warriors, it’s been the battle between wanting to properly respect the generation that won four titles while having an intriguing young core they don’t want to move away from. Either way the results have been the same.
Thompson gets a completely fresh start in Dallas. He gets to play on a team that just made the NBA Finals with promising young talent and a young superstar in Doncic. And more importantly, he gets to distance himself from a difficult last two seasons with the Warriors and make a decision that was truly his and no one else’s.
Mychal Thompson disappointed Klay Thompson didn’t join Lakers
Former Lakers player and current radio broadcaster Mychal Thompson was understandably disappointed by his son’s decision to join the Mavericks. However, he admitted that it’s possible that Klay playing for the Lakers was his own dream, not his son’s.
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