Two severe injuries
On June 13, 2019, Klay Thompson played in the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors. This was the sixth game in a series that the Canadian team won the title. Thompson was injured in this match – a cruciate ligament rupture in his left knee. Because of her, he had to miss the entire next season.
In 2020, Thompson recovered from an injury. But while training before the start of the new season, he suffered a new injury – a rupture of the Achilles tendon in his right leg. He was again waiting for a long period of treatment and recovery.
The door is always open – Eriksen, who has a heart attack, may return to submarine
941 days without a game
All this time the team had to play without one of its leaders. Overall, Golden State had a rough time in Thompson’s absence (and then Kevin Durant left the team, who was also injured). If before that FGW had become the NBA champion three times in four seasons (in 2015, 2017 and 2018), then the next two seasons did not even make it to the playoffs (once it failed the playoffs).
In total, Thompson has not been out on Earth for 941 days. Missed 177 games.
It should be noted that the player won more during the hospital than before. By 2019, he had earned $78.8 million. And for 2.5 years in the team hospital – $ 84.3 million.
However, Thompson was returned. On January 9, 2022, he played his first home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was assigned a place in the starting lineup, played a total of 20 minutes, during which he scored 17 points (4 out of 10 2 throws and 3 out of 8 three-pointers) and also scored 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block shot.
His immersion between the two opponents reached the top ten moments of the day in the NBA, where he finished second.
In this game he reached the mark of 1800 three-pointers (in 616 matches). Instead in the NBA, he was only done by teammate Stephen Curry (545 games).