SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson stepped off the team bus and beamed as he walked toward the Chase Center on Tuesday night. was greeted with cheers by approximately 400 Warriors employees They lined up on their way to the Dallas locker room to show their love and appreciation for the former Golden State star.

After the ball was tipped a few hours later, Thompson tried to improvise a Stephen Curry-style move as the former Splash Brothers dueled in different uniforms.

Employees welcoming Thompson wore “Captain Klay” hats to all fans during the night of celebration, which commemorated his 13 years with the team and the four championships he helped win.

“That was really cool,” Thompson said. “I am so grateful to my employees for showing me this kind of love…completely unexpected and definitely left a smile on my face. “It’s something I’ll never forget.”

These white hats filled the Chase Center, where Thompson’s highlight reel was shown in a place where he is still loved and always will be. Curry ran over to Thompson, who now wears No. 31 with teammate Kyrie Irving at No. 11, and shared a quick hug with his first words of the day before Andrew Wiggins also hugged his former teammate.

“Luckily we were all able to focus on the game and just shoot the hoops and compete,” Curry said. “It was an absolutely unreal night.”

Thompson scored 22 points on 7-of-17 shooting with 6 threes, but he watched the game. Curry shines in the closing moments Golden State’s 120-117 win. Thompson then high-fived a fan and tossed his white headband onto the seats, giving one lucky customer an unexpected souvenir.

Earlier, after a brief jump rope routine outside the Mavericks’ locker room, Thompson ran out of the tunnel and onto the court to thunderous applause from Warriors fans whose phones were clearly capturing the moment of Thompson’s comeback.

“It was a great moment to feel the energy of the fans,” Thompson said. “Especially all the conversations I heard were positive.”

Curry had considered addressing the crowd before tipoff but he and Thompson exchanged several text messages and each decided to focus on the game, but coach Steve Kerr knew something would happen when they had to defend each other.

Just 15 seconds into the game, Curry fouled Thompson, who scored the first two points of the game with free throws. He missed his first two field goal attempts before making a three-pointer with 1:26 left in the first quarter.

“I was very surprised they made a post for him in the first game,” Curry said. “This time I blacked out, I wasn’t going to let him score and I fouled him. “It was a pretty special night.”

The Warriors invited their entire staff to be part of the welcoming committee for Thompson, who joined Dallas in July on a three-year, $50 million contract. Thompson, 34, missed more than 2.5 years (the entire 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons) to recover from surgeries on his left knee and right Achilles tendon before making a comeback in January 2022.

“I think what he has overcome is almost unprecedented,” Kerr said. “… The last few years after he came back he had a hard time reconciling all of that, losing those good seasons. We’ve all seen it, we’ve all seen him struggle with it emotionally. We saw him struggle to get his game back. He helped us win the championship, he led the league in third place two years ago, he’s done a lot of great things.

“We wished it would last forever, that Klay would finish his career with us, but circumstances always demand those things. In the end, I think he made the right choice. I think he needed a fresh start, I think he needed some kind of renewal. A new environment was formed and it meant that he wasn’t happy and “That was hard to see because, deep down, she deserves to be happy.”

Thompson tried to downplay the importance of returning to the Bay Area by dismissing it as just another game in November.

“I hope y’all didn’t believe it,” said Curry, who watched the tribute video from the tunnel to give some space to all the emotions.

As the home fans went wild, jumping to their feet in warm applause and doffing their captain’s hats when he was introduced, Thompson became visibly emotional and clearly moved by the tribute. He waved and saluted in various directions.

“I couldn’t have imagined a better night,” Curry said.

Golden State held a “Salute to Captain Klay” ceremony before tipoff to commemorate Thompson’s contributions to the franchise and his tradition of boating across the bay to games. He will be back again for the Mavs’ second visit to Chase Center in February.

For Kerr, this moment was a far cry from Thompson’s triumphant return nearly three years ago, a day marked by injuries and a frightening rehab grind that the veteran guard considered the toughest days of his life.

“It was a welcome, we knew we had a lot of good times ahead of us. Actually, there was a championship in six months,” Kerr said. “This is obviously more of a farewell, the first time we’ll see it. … It’s going to sound weird but it’s going to be a different atmosphere, “It will be more of a thank you and a farewell and everything you mean to us.”

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