Klay Thompson doubters will undoubtedly eat their words soon
By Jake Ferraro
When the Dallas Mavericks fell in the 2024 NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics, it was obvious the team was missing a third key piece to the roster. To get the piece the Mavs were missing, they completed a sign-and-trade for Klay Thompson.
The move could quite potentially bring in other elite superstars to Dallas in free agency for years to come to join forces with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. After Thompson's introductory press conference with Dallas on July 9, it was obvious he wants to win another ring.
A few days after the press conference, Thompson played a basketball game at the JILaw Pro Runs, where he was wearing a Dirk Nowitzki jersey for part of it. Unfortunately for Thompson, his play in the game went critical. However, people are overreacting and are completely forgetting who Thompson is.
Klay Thompson doubters will undoubtedly eat their words soon
Thompson made his "debut" as a member of the Mavericks where he played with Philippines star Thirdy Ravena, and Chinese star Oliver Xu.
People quickly watched Thompson's performance in the game, and not everyone was impressed with what they saw.
It didn't take long for people to criticize Thompson immediately. Fans on X were calling him "cooked" and criticizing him in every way they could.
What people may not realize is the game isn't a regular season game or a playoff game. This is a game for Thompson to just get some work in to prepare himself for the upcoming season.
Fans will always find a way to overreact to a star's poor efforts or games, but people forget Thompson has battled injuries and doesn't have to go hard in a game that doesn't mean much. People also have forgotten who Thompson is. Thompson has won four NBA titles and is one of the greatest 3-point shooters who changed the game with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.
With Thompson's experience joining forces with the superstar duo of Doncic and Irving, it will make the Mavs such a challenging team to play against. With one of the best big threes in all of the NBA, Thompson brings his exciting 3-point shooting and pedigree to Dallas.
The game that Thompson played with Ravena and Xu doesn't hold much weight at all as it was a game to just get a groove to start back up playing basketball. When the Mavs need Thompson, they will be getting Thompson at the right time. The excitement in the Mavericks organization are at an all-time high with Thompson and for good reason.
He is going to silence all the doubters, and a couple of lowlights from a pickup game aren't going to change that.