Around 400 Warriors Employees Gave Klay Thompson A Heroes Welcome In His Return To Golden State

Rocky Widner. Getty Images.

Pretty big night tonight in the Bay with Klay Thompson returning to his old stomping grounds for the first time as a Mav. It's definitely taken my brain a little bit to get used to Klay in a Mavs jersey and not rocking his normal Warriors colors, but as time goes on it'll get less and less weird. 

As you can see by the video above, the return is a pretty big deal for obvious reasons, and it just goes to show that not every break up has to be dramatic or toxic. The Warriors and Klay Thompson reached a point where both sides knew it was time to move on. Klay wanted to cash in, the Warriors didn't want to play long term money for an aging player, and both sides went their separate ways. No hard feelings (eventually), it's just business and you could make the case that both sides are better for it.

From everything we're hearing from Klay he knew it was time and he's fully embraced being a Mav and the opportunity he now has for this stage of his career. We obviously are seeing how the Warriors look post-Klay, and what they did to replace his minutes has been the story of their young season. It's one of those rare situations where everyone's happy with their life right now so instead of there being some sort of animosity around Klay's return, instead everyone can just celebrate a franchise legend.

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At the end of the day, this dude was a pretty big part of 4 NBA titles, so it's not like he didn't deliver in his time there. As we see with the overwhelming majority of players, it's hard for a guy to stick with one franchise forever. That's just not a thing that happens in today's NBA. 

There's nothing quite like when a franchise legend returns for the first time, I'll always remember what it was like when Pierce and KG came back for the first time as Nets. Let's just say it was a little different of a reaction compared to when Kyrie came back wearing the same jersey. 

Thankfully, it feels like Klay is going to get the tribute he deserves.