Why did Klay Thompson’s dad say the shooting guard was in purgatory playing for the Mavs?
When Klay Thompson joined the Dallas Mavericks this season, it was thoughtthat he could be the final piece for a team that had just made a trip to the NBA Finals with Luka Doncic, one of the NBA’s best young superstars.
Fast forward and Doncic is a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, several players on the Mavs are injured including Kyrie Irving who was lost for the season, and the team is struggling to hold on to the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Thompson’s father, a former No. 1 overall pick by the Lakers in the 1978 NBA Draft, was on the Mason and Ireland show and said this was not the season his son had expected.
“He thought with Luka and Kyrie that they had a chance to get back to the finals. Obviously Luka left, when I told him, well when AD is coming you still got a chance to get to the finals because AD is that good. Then he’s hurt, and then Gafford got hurt, then Lively got hurt. So Klay is stuck in purgatory right now.”
The elder Thompson also said that without Irving their chances of going to the NBA finals are over.
“Without Kyrie, they can forget about going to the finals,” said Thompson, “No Kyrie now, If they get the two other bigs back. You got a chance to at least get to the first round and try to get out of it.”
Thompson said that if the Mavs held onto the 10th seed for the rest of the season it would be the story of the season and that he expected Dallas to lose 10 games in a row.
