Klay Thompson Calls Mavs' Season 'Tumultuous' after NBA Play-In Loss to Grizzlies

One of the strangest seasons for any team in NBA history almost mercifully came to an end on Friday night when the Dallas Mavericks lost 120-106 to the Memphis Grizzlies in the play-in tournament to determine the No 8 seed in the Western Conference.

Klay Thompson, who signed with the Mavs as a free agent last summer, called their 2024-25 campaign "tumultuous" before praising the effort of his teammates throughout the season.

What started as a fairly normal season for a Mavericks team with high expectations following an appearance in the 2024 NBA Finals took a sharp turn on Feb. 2 when Luka Dončić was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison may not have been trying to curse the franchise with that deal, but it definitely seemed to upset whatever higher-power basketball gods might be paying attention.

In the span of a month following the trade, Anthony Davis reinjured his adductor muscle in his first game with the Mavs on Feb. 8 that kept him out for six weeks and Kyrie Irving tore his ACL on March 3.

Daniel Gafford suffered a knee injury on Feb. 12 that caused him to miss 21 straight games. P.J. Washington was out of the lineup for two weeks in March due to an ankle injury. Dereck Lively II, who was already injured at the time of the trade, didn't return to the lineup until April 2.

This doesn't even factor in the incredibly poor messaging from Harrison and the Mavericks in trying to explain the reasoning for the trade. Fans were so outraged that they staged protests in and outside of American Airlines Center, along with frequent chants of "Fire Nico!" during home games and in various public venues around the Dallas area.

None of this is the fault of the players, but their performance for the past two months was almost secondary because of the fan outrage directed at the front office for trading a superstar who was on his way to becoming the best player in franchise history.