Klay Thompson isn’t backing down on the cryptic statements that Charles Barkley has thrown to him about his ongoing slump this season.
Before he took an exit on his post-game availability following the Golden State Warriors’ 123-110 dub over the Miami Heat, Thompson addressed the words of the outspoken ‘Inside the NBA’ analyst following his lowly night and ejection against the Phoenix Suns last Tuesday.
“I got one thing to say,” Thompson told reporters, via Alex Espinoza of 95.7 The Game. “It hurts when someone like Charles Barkley, with the platform he has, says you’re not the same player prior to the injuries you had. It’s like, ‘Come on, man. No duh, man.’ Consecutive years, I tore my ACL and my Achilles in consecutive years and still help a team win a championship?
“I mean, that hurt hearing that, because I put so much freaking effort to get back to this point. It’s hard to even put into words what I had to do to be the player I am today.”
Barkley made new headlines and chirpings around league circles recently after claiming that Thompson isn’t the “same guy” anymore after what he performed in front of the Phoenix crowd.
This came up when the All-star swingman was ejected out of the game for the first time in his career due to his embattled trash talk exchange with Devin Booker while enduring another icy night as he dropped two points on 1-of-8 shooting for 19 minutes.
But he made it sure to bounce back this Thursday against the Heat. Though the cold touch was still there by shooting 6-of-19 from the field, Thompson still finished up with season-high 19 points in 29 minutes to help the Dubs in molding their third win of the season.
Thompson, who didn’t play over 900 days of competitive basketball but still became an integral piece of the defending champs, admitted that he was hurt by what he heard from all-time great big man.
“I played (59) games in three years? Gimme some freakin’ time to get that back,” Thompson continued. “To hear someone say, ‘He’s not the same as he was prior to the injury,’ it’s like, ‘Duh!’ Who goes through something like that and comes back? I don’t know, it just hurt my heart hearing that, but you know what? I’m gonna internalize and it’s gonna be fuel for me to be even better.
“I’m very proud of what we accomplished last year and I’m a huge part of it. I’m not gonna let these injuries be a crutch for me. I’m just gonna keep going and I’m gonna have a great year. Bet on that.”
For his part, Stephen Curry took a swipe on the tail end of Barkley’s career while noting that Thompson will remain a championship piece for them.
“It’s interesting, because certain guys forget what their careers looked like on the back end,” Curry said. “You can cast and throw those stones, but Klay’s still in here helping us win a championship after the two hellish years he had.”
After all, Thompson can only guarantee that his moment will come soon again.
“I know I’m due for a really big shooting night really soon,” Thompson said. “I’ll break out of it.”
