Recently, New York Magazine published a feature about the content cycle of right wing media, focusing on the interplay between social media and Fox News. Peripherally, a content cycle of sorts was revealed when a recent Klay Thompson quote in Anthony Slater'sWarriors feature in The Athletic started making the aggregation rounds, which is why you're here reading this. But before we get to Klay's quote, we have to rehash what led us to this point.Â
In June of 2016, the Cavs came back from 3-1 down in the NBA Finals to beat a 73-win Warriors team. No team had ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals before, and to do so against the greatest regular season team in NBA history catapulted the series into any sane discussion about the best Finals in NBA history. (Certainly their Game 7 win on the road to clinch the comeback leads that conversation.Â
Fast forward a few months to that fall, when the Cavs threw a Halloween party that overtly mocked the Warriors' collapse. Then-Cav Richard Jefferson even recorded the whole thing back when players still used Snapchat. There was a Steph Curry dummy at the party, some pastries that poked fun at their opponents, and even decorations that rubbed it in Golden State's face.
Klay responded at the time with deadpan confusion that may or may not be ironic. Such is the IDGAF persona of Klay, which isn't even a persona, so much a pretty accurate portrayal of how little he cares about things like this blog post.
Fast forward a couple more months, and Thompson was quoted about the same Halloween party again, calling it "childish." He's not wrong, but that's why people loved the story; we're all just older children.
Fast forward almost two more years from Klay's second response to the party, and you get the third act to this basketball content drama. "Oh, yeah. Ha!" Klay told Slater because he had to be reminded of the story. "That was funny. Look how that turned out. Psssh. Bums. That was crazy. I forgot about that. Well, look at what pettiness gets you. Gets you 1-8 in the Finals. Idiots."
Klay's referencing Golden State's record against the Cavs in the next two Finals series, both of which they won. He fails to mention that Kevin Durant was the Finals MVP in both of those wins and that they didn't have Durant in the 2016 Finals. But why would he, and if he did, why would Slater put it in his story? Stories are as much about what you don't put in them as what you do (iceberg theory and Hemingway short stories set in northeastern Spain).
Turns out the cookies and decorations were LeBron's idea (it was his party after all), and Klay's karma police can rest easy knowing the Lakers likely aren't knocking them off this season, no matter what Kobe says.
