Klay Thompson will find motivation wherever he can.
Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown probably doesn’t need much help psyching himself up against the Cavaliers, who fired him twice. Or the Lakers, who fired him just five games into his second season in Los Angeles.
But the Nuggets?
That’s where Thompson’s shtick comes in, as relayed by Brown, Golden State coach Steve Kerr and former teammate James Michael McAdoo.
The Athletic:McAdoo: If there was a guy on our team that had previously played for the other team, Klay would always say, “They didn’t want you!”
Brown: If we’re about to play the Cavaliers … “They didn’t want ya, Mike B!”
McAdoo: Literally every time, everyone would laugh.
Kerr: He does his homework, too. He knows every single guys’ connection to every team. One time we were in Denver and we get done going through the scouting report and he goes, “They didn’t want you, Mike Brown!” Mike was a video coordinator in Denver under Bernie Bickerstaff in the late ’90s, mid-90s. Mike was like, “Wait, what? How’d you know that?” I think he goes through the game notes.
Thompson is such a character – someone who interrupts contract-extension negotiations because he wanted to attend to his dog, loves to show off his paper-airplane skills, earnestly answers man-on-the-street questions about scaffolding for the local news, thoughtfully explains his Drake listening habits while playing the Raptors in the NBA Finals and apparently does a deep dive into Brown’s bio – digging past Brown’s time as a Pacers assistant, Spurs assistant and even Wizards assistant.
I recommend the full Athletic article for even more examples of Thompson’s eccentricities.
