Klay Thompson's quietly stunning goodbye, plus Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese teaming up

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Good morning! You’re on my All-Star group.

Breakups: Klay Thompson’s brief, gorgeous goodbye

Generally, a serious information story can get misplaced within the day’s torrent of headlines. “USMNT suffers a serious setback.” “The defending NBA champions are on the market.” So on and so forth.

Thus the information that Klay Thompson — among the finest shooters in NBA historical past — is leaving Golden State, the place he helped construct the final dynasty this league has seen, was relegated (on a nationwide stage) to a brief point out.

However zoom out, and that is large. A flip of the web page in NBA historical past, the tip of an period we’ll by no means get again. Yesterday, Anthony Slater wrote the definitive story on how lengthy this breakup had been simmering.

A number of issues that strike me:

It’s straightforward to neglect that Thompson, together with Steph Curry, was a Warrior “earlier than banners had been hung up.” In the event you go by 3-pointers made, Curry and Thompson are two of the six greatest shooters in historical past. They performed on the identical group for 13 years, coming away with 4 NBA titles and 6 NBA Finals appearances. Unreal.
Thompson’s peak was that prolific, but nonetheless feels minimize brief. He went 914 days between taking part in video games from 2019 to 2021 as a result of two main leg accidents. If Thompson hadn’t been injured in the course of the 2019 finals, perhaps the Warriors have 5 titles. And even six.
However after his return, discontent simmered, regardless of Golden State profitable the 2022 title. There have been disagreements over damage rehab. This previous season completely crystallized the Klay downside: He received benched, earned his beginning job again after which went 0-for-10 in a Play-In loss towards Sacramento, which ended up being his final recreation as a Warrior.

Thompson, 34, clearly nonetheless has the flexibility to be a high quality capturing guard within the NBA, although he received’t be peak Klay once more. Slater notes that the Warriors provided Thompson a two-year, $48 million contract earlier than final season, a a lot larger AAV than the three-year, $50 million deal he signed in Dallas.

Learn Slater’s full story as we speak for an eyebrow-raising account of Thompson’s gorgeous departure. John Hollinger additionally expounded on why the period of NBA groups “shopping for” titles, like Golden State did within the later a part of its dynasty, is over.

And for those who’re nostalgic about all this, go watch Thompson’s breathtaking efficiency towards the Thunder within the 2016 Western Convention finals.

Information to Know

Clark and Reese get All-Star nodsLast night time, the WNBA introduced its All-Star Recreation roster, which incorporates rookie rivals Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. However the intrigue goes deeper: The format is Workforce WNBA versus Workforce USA, that means the rookies — who had been left off the Olympic roster — will get an opportunity for exhibition revenge. I’m a fan of the format. See the total roster (and snubs) right here.

Lakers give Bronny assured dealBronny James will signal a multiyear, absolutely assured contract with the Lakers after being chosen at No. 55 in final week’s NBA Draft, sources advised The Athletic. James mentioned in an introductory information convention yesterday that the previous week has been “surreal” and (dubiously) that he “by no means actually had a considered me going to play with my dad.” Hm. John Hollinger mentioned in our write-up that Bronny’s assured deal truly makes price range sense.

Extra information

Issues You Need to See: The revengeful save of the summer time

In March, Austria and Turkey performed a pleasant match, a pleasant early tuneup for this summer time’s Euros. Austria trampled the Turkish facet 6-1. Thus we anticipated a lot of the identical in yesterday’s Euros spherical of 16 match, proper?

Fairly mistaken: Turkey scored early — usually an Austrian hallmark — and by no means trailed in a 2-1 win. However look how shut it got here to a tie match with seconds to play:

WHAT AN OUTSTANDING SAVE 🤯

Turkey is transferring on to the #EURO2024 quarterfinals after this point-blank save from Mert Günok prevented Austria from equalizing late ⤵️

🎥 @FOXsoccerpic.twitter.com/MfyFIfz97V

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) July 2, 2024

That should be the save of this match (and higher than any in Copa America, for that matter), due to Turkish keeper Mert Günok. Turkey advances to play the Netherlands, winners of a 3-0 rout towards Romania yesterday, within the Euros quarterfinals. We additionally noticed some thrilling Copa motion final night time:

Watch This Recreation

MLB: Reds at Yankees7:05 p.m. ET on Amazon PrimeI all the time discover it humorous when a group (Cincinnati, on this case) holds a +16 run differential however sits behind two groups in its division (Pirates and Cardinals) with a lot worse numbers (each -37). New York, in the meantime, remains to be atop the AL East regardless of a latest skid.

WNBA: Mercury at Wings8 p.m. ET on NBA TVThis won’t see the file viewership that Phoenix-Indiana earned, however any probability to look at Diana Taurasi, Kahleah Copper and Brittney Griner is nice sufficient for me.

Get tickets to video games like these right here.

Pulse Picks

Mark Gastineau was a boisterous NFL star, then a fallen one. He appeared on journal covers, then in jail. Now, at 67, the playboy days are behind him — as a result of he doesn’t want them anymore, as Dan Pompei writes as we speak in a stirring story a couple of former NFL celebrity’s new life.

Everybody remains to be reeling from USMNT’s collapse. Paul Tenorio and Greg O’Keeffe gave a full diagnostic of how the People arrived right here — and extra on what’s subsequent.

Additionally: How was Uruguay not dominated offside on that essential objective towards USMNT on Monday? Tomás Hill López-Menchero went behind the scenes with the VAR crew to clarify.

Jesse Granger grades the NHL offseason goalie carousel. The market has been extraordinarily energetic.

“Laborious Knocks” premiered final night time and really gave us some fascinating insights into why the Giants didn’t re-sign Saquon Barkley.Useful: Charlie Eccleshare and Matthew Futterman recapped Day 2 at Wimbledon, the place top-seeded Iga Swiatek survived a “banana peel of an opener” and Marketa Vondrousova’s title protection ended early.

Most-clicked within the e-newsletter yesterday: Our story about Pat Tillman’s mom saying she was “shocked” to be taught Prince Harry received the award bearing her son’s identify on the ESPYs.

Most-read on the web site yesterday: The newest MLB Energy Rankings, which give correct as a result of what Baltimore has carried out over the previous couple of weeks.

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(Photograph: Rocky Widner / NBAE by way of Getty Pictures)

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