FILE–Klay Thompson #11f of the Golden State Warriors shoots around pregame at Chase Center on November 07, 2021 in San Francisco, California. Michael Urakami/Getty Images/AFP
The other half of the Splash Brothers is finally back after more than two painstaking years.
Klay Thompson was a full participant Tuesday in a Golden State team practice for the first time since June 2019. Thompson tore his ACL in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals before rupturing his Achilles in November 2020.
“It’s so exciting,” Thompson said. “Just to be running up and down the court and playing basketball, it’s truly a blessing and it makes coming to work so easy. The boring stuff’s behind me and now it’s just getting back in game shape — I got to stay patient because I can be an overeager person to get out there and play, but I’m just incredibly grateful to be out there.”
Thompson, 31, took part in 5-on-5 scrimmages over the past week.
A report earlier this week said Thompson would return to the active roster the week before Christmas, though coach Steve Kerr pushed back on that Tuesday.
“We don’t have a target date,” Kerr said. “What we have is a number of weeks ahead of us for certain where we’re going to play it out, keep letting him scrimmage as often as possible so that he’ll build that endurance. And I would think within a few weeks we’ll be able to finally sort of get a target date, but we don’t have one right now.”
The Warriors are sitting with the NBA’s best record at 15-2 entering Tuesday’s action.
The Warriors selected Thompson with the No. 11 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. In 615 games (578 starts) with Golden State, Thompson has averages of 19.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.
He’s a five-time All-Star and part of three NBA championship teams.