Return to Glory: Kyrie Irving Shares Expertise to Klay Thompson on Navigating…

The Dallas Mavericks are playing against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. While it’s the first game of Group play in the NBA Cup for both teams, the biggest storyline is Klay Thompson’s return to San Francisco to play his former team.

Thompson spent 13 years with the Warriors, winning four championships and making five All-Star Games to cement a Hall of Fame resume, and the emotions will surely be running high on Tuesday night as he plays his former team. His new All-Star teammate, Kyrie Irving, shared some advice on how to handle those on Sunday after their game against the Nuggets.

“The biggest thing is just the human aspect of emotions,” Irving said in his postgame press conference on Sunday. “It’s just gonna be haywire, man. You don’t know how to really feel because you’ve been in a routine with another team for a long period of time. You know everybody from upper management all the way down to security, to every guy that’s on the team, every guy that you had a conversation with game to game… You just start reflecting on all those intentional moments where you spent time with people that really want to win… Outside of that, it’s just about having fun and being able to look some of your old fans in the face and tell them ‘Thank you,’ and they thank you in their own way, too. You see it handled differently by all of us… I’ve just told Klay we have his back, just reiterating and affirming to him it’s another game on our road trip, but we know how much it means to [him], and we’re gonna have to bring our emotions out there too.”

The Mavericks are Irving’s fourth team in his NBA career, playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, and Brooklyn Nets before being traded to Dallas, so he knows about homecoming games. He’s struggled in games at Boston since his departure from there and can help Thompson get through some of the nerves and emotions of a game like this.

Thompson has struggled in his last few games, making just two of his last 13 attempts from three-point range. He’ll want to prove that the Warriors made a mistake in letting him go and hopes he can shoot better than he has recently.

Dallas and Golden State will tip off around 9 p.m. CST on TNT.