When Klay Thompson left Oracle Arena on crutches Thursday night, what happened?
Where did he undergo the MRI on his left knee? Did he see what happened in real time? What was going through his mind?
Ramona Shelburne of ESPN has the answers:
Thompson's brother, Mychel, drove him to an imaging center in Berkeley. His parents followed in a separate car. The Warriors were keeping it close deep into the fourth quarter.
With just a few minutes remaining in the game, Thompson was wheeled into the MRI machine. The game ended while he was in there.
"What happened?" Thompson asked as soon as he finished. "Did we win?"
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It wasn't until he learned that the Warriors had lost that he began to consider what this injury might mean to his career.
"Do you think this could affect my free agency?" he asked.
This is really sad to think about.
Klay landed awkwardly on the left leg pic.twitter.com/h4rLSXy0Za— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) June 14, 2019
Fortunately for Klay, ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported on Friday morning that the Warriors' intention is to still offer the five-time All-Star a five-year max contract that would pay him about $190 million.
That was the expectation before he sustained a torn left ACL and it apparently is still the franchise's plan.
Klay was incredible in Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Raptors, scoring 30 points on just 12 shots in 32 minutes.
GAME 6 KLAY pic.twitter.com/rlFtXRpqDg— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) June 14, 2019
Klay Thompson shot 58.5 percent from 3-point range (24-for-41) in the NBA Finals— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) June 14, 2019
At some point in the near future, the two-time All-NBA selection will have surgery on that left knee and the long road to recovery will begin.
[RELATED: Klay's father says 'no question' he'll re-sign with Dubs]
"I was so hurt for him," Klay's father, Mychal, told ESPN. "He wanted to be out there with his teammates. If he was going to lose, he was going to go down with his teammates."
