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What Had Happened Was

What Had Happened Was: 8/2/16

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    Nigeria v United States – USA Basketball Showcase
    HOUSTON, TX – AUGUST 1: The USA Basketball Men’s National Team celebrates during the game against Nigeria on August 1, 2016 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images
    By Ryan Cortes Rhiannon Walker

    GAME. BLOUSES.

    Since the moment Kevin Durant decided he was headed to Oakland, California, to play with the Golden State Warriors, the questions and rumors have come flying fast. Just last week, there was the “report” that rival teams are just waiting for the chemistry between Durant and Stephen Curry to go sour so that they can swoop in and “poach” Curry. Sigh.

    This is all just media noise that will quiet when we witness a historically great team whip around the court when the season starts. But what does Warriors guard Klay Thompson think about all this noise? After all, he’s the man who dropped an absurd 41 points and 11 3-pointers in a season-saving Game 6 against Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals. He’s the one who vanquished Durant’s title hopes and now he has to take less shots for KD, too?

    As Shams Charania of The Vertical found out, Thompson doesn’t care at all. In fact, he seems kind of annoyed.

    “I feel kind of disrespected that people keep using the term sacrifice to describe me and describe us,” Thompson told The Vertical. “We all want to see each other do well. But I’m not sacrificing [expletive], because my game isn’t changing. I’m still going to try to get buckets, hit shots, come off screens. I want to win and have a fun time every game we play.”

    https://vine.co/v/5AwvzZ0LWMP

    “The NBA season can get mundane; 82 games are so long and there can be some boredom,” Thompson continued. “Now, we can embrace being the hated team and getting everyone’s best, and adding some tension every night. It’ll be a fun experience going into arenas on the road, with opposing fans hating what we’ve built … it never mattered to me about starting, coming off the bench or scoring 12, 15 or 20 points. This league can get caught up in scoring, and caught up in the stars. I’ve really just wanted to keep the Bay a winner — we all do. I wouldn’t have flown to New York when we met KD if it was about sacrificing. We knew what we wanted to do, and we talked it out. We want to do something historic.”

    Playing alongside Durant, Draymond Green and Curry isn’t a sacrifice, it’s an exchange. And the exchange is: Come play with the best team ever assembled, Klay. Cool?

    In other words, Thompson isn’t sacrificing [expletive].

    BLESSINGS!

    Muslim women are responding to Donald Trump with the hashtag #CanYouHearUsNow after the Republican presidential nominee said that Ghazala Khan, the mother of a fallen Gold Star military member, looked like she “wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.”

    Khan’s husband spoke at the Democratic National Convention, and she refrained from speaking because she knew she would have a hard time talking about her son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who died in Iraq 12 years ago, without crying.

    SOCIAL STATUS

    Please just read the tweets from this trending topic. You will be hollering. We’re just trying to figure out if these are the thoughts we all have in our head or some brave soul ACTUALLY did some of these.

    https://twitter.com/MsBeyhave/status/760164016455032832

    https://twitter.com/Ohen_/status/760186238506795008

    Papi

    FOR THE CULTURE

    We’re about to get a Kanye West/Drake collab album, aren’t we?

    Speaking of Mr.West, here he is casually comparing himself as a filmmaker to Quentin Tarantino.

    Artist Tom Sachs talks about working with Frank Ocean on his next project.

    Olympian Claressa Shields is fighting for a gold medal — another one.

    TOP THREE TWEETS

    Every morning we’ll hit you here with the best of what we saw on social media the previous night. Why? Why not?

    1. GOOD OL’ TIMMY

    2. NOT A HOT START

    3. *LOOKS AT WATCH*

    #ICYMI

    Our brother Jason Reid spoke with former NFL defensive back Will Allen about life after football and what is needed to properly prepare:

    On average, players retire after only 3.5 seasons, according to NFLPA research, and they can’t access their pensions until age 55 at the earliest. Only a small number of players walk away from the game financially independent. Most must build second careers to meet expenses. Just check out the news: There have been far more reports about professional athletes going broke than success stories about players who have transitioned seamlessly to new careers. Allen won’t wind up as a cautionary tale, he said. “I told myself I will not be a statistic,” said Allen, 34, who has been a key contributor for the Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Dallas teams, and hopes to sign with another team to play his 13th season. “The biggest problem for a lot of guys is the transition. They don’t know what to do next, they don’t know how to do it and they end up going broke. Then when the money isn’t coming in, so many guys get frustrated, they get depressed and they get divorced. “They still want football, that itch of competition, the locker room and togetherness. … If guys have another job, another career that they’ve been preparing for, a lot of that, a lot of those problems, can be avoided. That’s why so many guys are interested in the externships.”

    PICTURE PERFECT

    Ryan Cortes is a staff writer for The Undefeated. Lemon pepper his wings.

    Rhiannon Walker is an associate editor at The Undefeated. She is a drinker of Sassy Cow Creamery chocolate milk, an owner of an extensive Disney VHS collection, and she might have a heart attack if Frank Ocean doesn't drop his second album.

    This Story Tagged: What Had Happened Was Klay Thompson