Andrew Bogut on Klay Thompson: ‘He’s the most non-chalant All-Star I’ve been around’

“I still remember in the 2016 Olympics, we’re all staying in the village,” Bogut said. “The USA (men’s basketball team), as you know, they’re too big-time for the village. They have them on a cruise liner or whatever they stay at. But we get back from practice one day, like middle of the tournament, got off the bus and in the village we’re walking to our residences. And I see Klay. As I’m on the bus I see Klay just walking around, Team USA gear, headphones on, just walking by himself. “So I jump off the bus, I’m like, ‘Klay, what are you doing, man?’ Say hello to him. He goes, ‘Yeah, I just wanted to come see the village.’ He just came by himself, no security, no other players with him. Then he’s like, ‘Where are you going?’ I said, ‘I’m just going back to the Australian quarters.’ And he’s, ‘Can I come with you?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, no worries.’ -via The Athletic / January 7, 2022

“And he came with us, hung out with a few of our players, because he knows Aron Baynes and Brock Motum. Came and said hello to them. And then fast-forward two or three hours later, I thought he’d left. I walked downstairs to go to dinner or whatever and he’s downstairs playing ping-pong with, like, someone from the athletics team on the Australian national team, you know?” -via The Athletic / January 7, 2022

Pachulia, now a Warriors executive, has spent the last few weeks in Europe for the holidays (and watching his sons in a youth basketball tournament), but he’s absolutely making sure he’ll be back in San Francisco for whenever Klay is set to return. I’ve heard a lot of Warriors people get emotional talking about the anticipation for this. But Pachulia topped them all. “I can’t wait!” Pachulia said with a bellow. “It’s been an extremely long two years. Especially the last stretch, that’s been the longest. He sees the light at the end of the tunnel. I can’t imagine the energy we’re going to have in Chase Center for that game. I don’t know how he’s going to sleep the night before. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep the night before.” -via The Athletic / January 7, 2022