Most casual NBA fans didn’t know who Klay Thompson was back in 2011. He was the leading scorer for Washington State—and the son of former NBA player Mychal Thompson—but he wasn’t on everyone’s radar just yet.
Thompson was on Kobe Bryant’s radar, though, due to his father’s close connection with the Lakers franchise. So after Thompson was pulled over one night in March 2011 and hit with a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge, Kobe texted him some words of advice. But he didn’t send a “Don’t do drugs!” message like you might expect. Instead, Kobe sent an expletive-filled text and indicated that Thompson needed to move on as quickly as possible.
“He said, ‘Forget about that,’ said it with a couple expletives,” Thompson said last night after his Warriors beat up on Kobe’s Lakers, “and ‘just go out there and kill.’”
Ah, the old "just go out there and kill." Wise words, Kobe!
“I have a potty mouth,” Kobe said when he was asked about the text. “I just told him, ‘Listen, man, we all make mistakes. You can’t worry about that stuff. Just keep your focus on basketball and everything else will work itself out.’”
Thompson was drafted by Golden State a few months later—and everything did work itself out for him. Maybe Kobe should be a motivational speaker once his retirement tour is over.
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[via KNBR]
