With Kevin Durant and Steph Curry headlining Game 1 of the NBA Finals, shooting guard Klay Thompson looked like the odd man out Thursday night.
After the game's conclusion, plenty of talk centered around Thompson's supposed irrelevancy. Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard C.J. McCollum stirred the pot further, tweeting that Thompson would depart the Bay Area after picking up another championship.
Thompson's father, two-time NBA champion Mychal Thompson, was having none of it. Mychal emphatically denied any idea that Klay is unhappy with his role, and borrowed a now infamous phrase to do so.
"These people don't know what they are talking about. To quote a famous person, it's fake news," Thompson stated on Sirius XM's NBA Radio.
Thompson, who averaged 22.3 points this season, has seen that mark slump to just 13.8 in the playoffs. The prolific shooter is draining 36.6 percent of his attempts and was a non-factor in Game 1, going 3-of-16 for a meager six points and four assists.
Though Klay himself hasn't expressed any frustration or unhappiness regarding his role, it is hard to imagine a player with his explosiveness happily settling into a background role on a nightly basis, and his relevancy is often determined by whether his shot is falling. Through these playoffs, it hasn't been.
