Lacob reveals Warriors’ preseason Klay offer was higher than Mavs deal originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
In the weeks since Klay Thompson signed with the Dallas Mavericks, various people in and around the Warriors have offered insight into the process and reasons behind the high-profile departure.
Now, more news has emerged right from the top, as Golden State owner Joe Lacob revealed some key information about the team’s contract offers to Thompson.
“We made an offer to him — it’s well chronicled — in the fall, substantially higher than what he ultimately did wind up signing for,” Lacob told Tim Kawakami on Friday’s episode of “Audacy’s The TK Show.”
That statement appears to corroborate reports that the Warriors offered Thompson a two-year extension worth around $24 million annually before the start of the 2023-24 NBA season. This summer, the star shooting guard signed a three-year deal with the Mavericks worth a total of $50 million.
Once Thompson’s camp refused the preseason offer, Lacob disclosed that the bid was taken off the table; it wasn’t available as free agency approached after the season’s end.
“That’s clear, that was an offer in the fall, and we were in the process of developing an offer [at the start of free agency],” Lacob asserted. “We really couldn’t do that — he knew that — without seeing how a lot of different chips, things were happening. We had a lot of things going on.”
Instead of waiting for another contract offer from Golden State, Thompson simply decided he wouldn’t return before free agency began.
“He made the choice a little early — he made it for us,” Lacob added. “It’s not what we wanted, but it happened.”
Lacob made it clear that the Warriors were interested in keeping Thompson “a Warrior for life, under a fair and equitable basis,” but the logistics of the situation dissuaded the team from making any further offers after the original was denied.
One can only imagine if Thompson regrets not taking that first contract proposal worth more money, but perhaps he wanted to move on regardless of the cash on the table.