Mychal Thompson finds balance as he calls Lakers-Warriors games

Klay Thompson celebrates the 2022 NBA Championship with his father and brother.

ANGELS Long-term commitments and loyalties are unbreakable, so when someone wins a pair of championships with the Lakers and comments on the teams’ radio broadcasts, the job he’s had in recent years, believe Mychal Thompson when he says: My blood runs purple and gold.

Long-term commitments and loyalty are unbreakable, so believe Thompson when he also says emphatically: I’m a parent first and foremost, so I’m very supportive of my son. I always want him to do well.

So it’s settled: blood is thicker than blood. Or something like that. It’s complicated any time Mychal Thompsons Lakers play against Klay Thompsons Warriors and came up here in their first playoff game. Or against each other. Something like that.

It’s a peculiar mid-air tug-of-war, with a devoted father and employee negotiating emotions as the Lakers and Warriors seek to eliminate each other.

I always look at the fact that I have two chances to win a championship ring, says the father. If Klay wins one, I get one. If the Lakers win one, I get one. It gives me a double chance.

Every father of a talented son wants his son to give him something to talk about, and this is quite literally the case in the unique case of Mychal and Klay Thompson. Although 710 listeners rarely, if ever, hear the father gushing uncontrollably about the son.

No, said Mychal Thompson. I try to keep it even. The first game when he struggled, I just said he had a rough night shooting the ball. It should be kept professional.

All in all, the situation can only be positive. Mychal Thompson is bubbly by nature, someone who can talk about anything, with an emphasis on humor and insight. He’s a natural broadcaster, which became his full-time gig after he retired from the game in 1991. His son, of course, is a historic 3-point shooter and four-time champion. Thus, the subject of the conversation and the interlocutor are not only individually connected to each other, but also created for each other in this relation.

Their situation began in 2011 when Klay entered the league. Mychal Thompson knew the moment was inevitable when he would have to play his sons’ games on the opposing team’s radio, and he was prepared.

Klays first game against the Lakers was on January 6, 2012. He came off the bench yes, he was sub once and dropped 14 points in 21 minutes, an impressive cameo. But it has a backstory.

It was against Kobe Bryant, his idol, the father said, so it was a really special night for him. Against Kobe, it was a tough thing for veteran players, let alone rookies. I said on the air that I just hope Klay holds up against the great Kobe Bryant. And he was fine. I was very proud of him. He was able to compete at a very high level against the great Kobe.

Father and son understandably spent time together the night before, discussing everything but the upcoming game.

I didn’t want to put extra pressure or nerves on Klay, Mychal Thompson said. I knew what it was like to be a rookie and play your first game against your basketball idol. That’s how I felt when I got the chance to play against Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) for the first time. I was so nervous going up against a guy I looked up to my whole basketball fandom, now I’m going up against him.

What about the fathers’ nerves in the lesser-known games between the Lakers and the Warriors?

Oh, it doesn’t matter what games I watch him play, he said. The nerves are there. I was nervous when he was in high school. He didn’t need to be in the NBA. High school, college, you always get nervous for your child because you want them to do well.

Klay had several solid games against the Lakers with his father on the mic. His sixth-highest scoring game, 44 points, was against LA in January 2019. He broke 40 for the first time against the Lakers five years earlier.

“I still remember the 44-point game,” Mychal Thompson said. He made 10 straight 3s, missed his 11th, and he just went out. And he didn’t play in the fourth quarter because it was such a blowout. Imagine if he could play in a tight game. He could have made 17 straight 3s, he was in that kind of rhythm. He was hot.

His broadcasting partner is Lakers player John Ireland, according to whom it is not difficult to notice the difference between a Warriors game and, say, a game played against the Rockets.

He likes Klay all day, Ireland said. He’s also tougher on Klay than the other people whose games we call. You’d think he’d be easier. Julie, his wife, makes it difficult for him. Hell, you get a text from him mid-game: “you’re just killing Klay! Sometimes the Warriors play someone else and I say Klay has 40 and Mychal says, ‘Oh yeah, how many rebounds does he have?’

But it doesn’t reveal his true feelings. I learned so much about being a father by being around him. He is so supportive. He watches as many Warriors games as humanly possible. The only time I saw him speechless and Mychal can talk all day about anything was when Klay had an NBA record 37 in one quarter (January 2015 against the Kings). We were sitting in the back of the Lakers team plane waiting to take off to another city and everyone was freaking out and he’s speechless. Blown away.

What about this Lakers-Warriors series?

He has been tortured, Ireland said.

Well, to some extent though. The father has a clear interest in rooting.

I want Klay to do well, Mychal Thompson said. When he loses and I can tell he’s unhappy, I don’t want to see it. I am a parent and you want your child to be as happy as possible. I know how much the game means to him, so when he doesn’t win, I know how much it hurts him and me too.

Before Game 1 in San Francisco, they ate dinner and once again did not discuss the matter at hand. It has become a ritual that works for both of them because it works for them.

We watched the other series, the Nuggets and the Suns, and we talked about basketball in that series, Mychal Thompson said. This series, look, Klays is a 12-year veteran, a Hall of Famer, a four-time champion. He doesn’t need my advice. He knows what he has to do. And he got Steve Kerr, Steph (Curry), Draymond (Green), great teammates to advise. He doesn’t need to hear more from me because he’s been there and done it all.

Mychal Thompson has three sons and all three earned professional sports salaries. Trayce plays for the Dodgers, and Mychel had a brief NBA stint before settling in as an assistant coach with the Warriors. And of course Klay.

Between the two of them, they have six NBA championship rings, and while dad earned his first, Klays’ jewelry adds more bling, which he’s mentioned more than once.

Mychal Thompson explained that in the 80s, rings were not as flashy as they are today. Not as glamorous. His rings are twice the size of mine. He laughs, but I tell him the rings mean just as much.

That’s why Laker colors run so deep in Mychal Thompson. He was part of Showtime and rode alongside his idols Kareem and Magic Johnson as Pat Riley’s coach, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The Lakers have done so much for me and my basketball career, he said. Basketball made me who I am today.

But the pride of seeing a boy surpass those accomplishments and grow into his own and leave a bold mark on the game worth discussing on television in this series while working for the Lakers.

The standard line is he wants Klay to score 50 and the Lakers to win by two, Ireland said. I teased him and say, “If the Warriors are down by two and there’s a three-pointer in the air and Klay shoots it, you’re not telling me you want it to go in?”

And he looks at me and says, confused, ‘Of course.

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Shaun Powell has been playing in the NBA for over 25 years. You can send him an emailhere, you can find his archive hereand follow himTwitter.

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