Klay Thompson was 7 years old when he first had the chance to meet his idol, Kobe Bryant.
After a Lakers-Trail Blazers game in Portland, Ore., Klay’s father, former Lakers center Mychal Thompson, brought his three sons back to shake hands with Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. Suddenly overcome with nerves, Klay stayed in the hallway, clutching his mother’s hand, while his two brothers walked into the Lakers’ locker room with Mychal.
“I think he was just too overwhelmed with the idea of going to meet Kobe and having Kobe saying hello to him,” Mychal recalled recently.
Klay Thompson and Golden State’s three other All-Stars in their prime — Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green — have viewed Bryant as a childhood icon, an opponent and a mentor.