Editor's note: The above video is from Aug. 7, 2014.
You know the story.
In the summer of 2014, the Warriors contemplated a trade that would send Klay Thompson (and other pieces) to Minnesota in exchange for Kevin Love.
When Jermaine O'Neal heard about the rumors, he picked up the phone and called general manager Bob Myers.
"Don’t you dare do that," O'Neal recently explained to Sports Illustrated's Chris Ballard. “Klay is one of the best two-way players in the game. He’s supremely underrated on defense. He moves his feet as well as anyone I’ve seen in a long time, and typically guys only go hard one way or the other, not both offense and defense. I said, ‘Bob, give these guys another year.’”
What made O'Neal so confident that the Warriors were close to competing for a championship?
After Golden State dropped Game 7 of its opening round series to the Clippers, Steph Curry and Thompson were distraught in the locker room.
[RELATED: Jermaine O'Neal: To discredit Curry, Warriors 'absolutely crazy']
“Sometimes in pro sports other things trump being cut deep emotionally when you lose, so you don’t see a lot of that at the pro level,” O'Neal said to Ballard. “Usually it’s more in high school and college. When your two best players are affected by losing like that, I knew right away they were going to be good the next year.”
After much deliberation, the Warriors' front office elected to stand pat.
Ultimately, Klay signed an extension and enjoyed a breakout 2014-15 campaign that included his first All-Star selection, and culminated in the Warriors' first NBA title since 1975.
O'Neal could have been a member of last year's championship squad, but retired after his lone season with the Warriors (the 18th of his career).
It was time to put family first.
"Physically, I could have done it," O'Neal said. "Mentally, no. My son and my family asked me not to, and that was the trump card. At the time, my son was saying, ‘Hey Dad, I need you.’ That did something to me.
"I was seeing changes in my son, he became more angry. And for a guy who didn’t meet his dad until seven years ago myself, I understood what it meant not to have a dad there...
“... Sometimes you can’t be a champion. That doesn’t determine who you are. But you can be a champion father, and that means everything. That means everything.”
