Our society tends to underestimate the importance and fortitude of sidekicks due to the preeminence of the alpha dog.
It’s not even a dichotomy that gets thrust upon us, because sidekicks have the same objectives as alpha dogs when approaching the task at hand.
You’re not choosing amongst the two of them, because they’re on the same side. It’s not a hero/villain dynamic.
The perception with sidekicks is that they’re present only to provide the alpha dog with support when they need it, instead of adding their own flair to conquering the given situation.
Batman might be the ceremonial “leader” of the duo, and while Robin certainly can’t do everything that Batman does, it’s equally true that Batman can’t replicate Robin’s unique talents.
Sidekicks are often just subjective designations anyway, usually bestowed not due to ability, but what fits better in a specific storyline.
The only reason Steve Wozniak is considered Steve Jobs’ sidekick is simply because Jobs was the more compelling character, at least from a publicity standpoint.
Jobs made himself the face of Apple and could give a more charismatic interview, but Woz’s technical abilities far exceeded what Jobs could do.
Could one of them have succeeded without the other? Probably to an extent, but maybe not as much as when their diverse traits complimented each other to the point that the overall package gets heightened.
Sports is a slightly easier sphere to have this discussion in because objective statistics can better determine an individual’s worth to a team.
However, the beauty of a team setting is that one player can’t do everything on their own. While they might be the most talented, they need contributions from others to help the team succeed.
Many people consider Michael Jordan the greatest player ever, but I don’t think he wins those 6 championships without Scottie Pippen.
I won’t name names, but I’ve seen people on TV argue that Jordan would have still won the 6 championships without Pippen, and I think that’s outrageously unfair considering how special of a player Pippen was in his own right.
We’re talking about a guy who made the NBA All-Defensive First Team 8 years in a row. If that distinction gets expanded to First or Second Team All-Defense, it’s 10 years in a row.
He made an All-NBA Team 7 years in a row. He was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.
The league didn’t institute an All-NBA Third Team until 1989, so Pippen’s total is slightly inflated compared to other legends.
However, among players who played post 1989, Pippen has as many or more All-NBA Team selections as Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Tracy McGrady, Jason Kidd, and Clyde Drexler to just name a handful.
Nobody would discount the influence of one of those players on a contending team, so to act as if Jordan carried some lackluster supporting casts to championships is absurd.
It’s the aura of the alpha dog, though. In our cultural glorification of the main star, the impact of others gets negated as we build up that one guy to mythical status.
My fear with these Warriors teams is that if they win more championships, Stephen Curry is going to get inflated at the expense of a guy like Klay Thompson, who I will insist is just as important to the Warriors’ success as Pippen was to those 1990s Bulls teams.
Curry is objectively the more valuable player. The metrics prove it. However, my hope is that people truly appreciate what a special player Thompson is.
Curry ends up garnering most of the attention, and it often distracts from how transcendent the second Splash Brother is in his own right.
They actually come from similar basketball backgrounds. Each had a dad who played in the NBA that they’ve already surpassed in terms of individual accolades.
Thompson’s dad Mychal averaged over 20 points per game for the Portland Trail Blazers, but may be best known as a backup power forward/center player on the late 1980s Showtime Lakers championship squads.
Klay spent his early childhood years in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he was actually Little League teammates with future NBA All Star Kevin Love.
Little did he know, the fortunes of an entire franchise would change decades later when Jerry West vocally refused to endorse a trade that would have sent Thompson for Love.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I thought they were making a mistake when they didn’t want to give Thompson away for Love.
I was mesmerized by the lofty scoring and rebounding totals and the 3-point shooting ability from a guy 6’10’’. I let those offensive statistics mask the defensive shortcomings.
Thompson moved to California as a teenager and attended Santa Margarita Catholic high School, eventually graduating in 2008.
During his senior year, he was named Division III State Player of the Year and an EA Sports Second Team All-American.
Thompson chose to attend Washington State University, where he immediately became a starter, averaging 12.5 points per game as a freshman.
During that freshman year, he was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman Team, and he only improved from that point.
He was named to the All-Pac-10 First Team after averaging 19.6 points per game his sophomore season.
As a junior, he was once again named to the All-Pac-10 First Team. That year, however, he lead the entire conference in scoring.
He decided to forgo his senior season and enter the 2011 NBA Draft. He left Washington State as the school’s 3rd all time leading scorer.
Thompson was drafted by the Warriors with the 11th overall pick. Interestingly enough, it was just two seasons after Monta Ellis proclaimed that a backcourt combo with him and Stephen Curry wouldn’t work.
Ellis probably saw the writing on the wall with the Thompson pick. Thompson is 6’7’’, and assuming that he panned out as a player would provide Curry with that lengthy shooting guard to share a backcourt with.
Ellis didn’t provide that contrast at just 6’3’’, and later that season was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The team had a lot of faith in Thompson to trade away a player as beloved and successful as Ellis, and it has definitely paid off.
Thompson was a pure shooter when he first came into the league. He had the tools to become a lockout defender, though, and Mark Jackson really did a fantastic job of emphasizing defensive intensity in Thompson’s early years.
As a rookie, Thompson didn’t have a lot of confidence putting the ball on the floor and slashing to the hoop, but the tremendous shooting was evident immediately.
He made the All-Rookie First Team in 2012, averaging 12.5 points and shooting 41.4% on 3-pointers in 24.4 minutes per game.
He was gifted as a marksman, and he and Curry started raising a lot of eyebrows around the league. Jackson boldly stated that they were the best shooting backcourt duo of all time.
It was met with skepticism, but seems like a smart assessment with some more time to see how things have played out.
During the 2012-2013 season, Curry and Thompson made more 3-pointers than any pair of teammates ever.
He improved his scoring average to 16.6 points per game, and continued shooting the lights out, registering 40.1% from 3-point range.
In fact, Thompson has been in the league for 5 seasons now, and he has never shot lower than 40% from downtown in any season. Curry hasn’t either in 7 total seasons.
What Curry can’t claim is an improved scoring average each season. Thompson has averaged more points per game that the previous season in each year in the league.
During his time with the Warriors, Thompson has become a more well rounded player. He gets to the hoop more frequently than he did when he first entered the league, and his solid defensive abilities make him one of the best two-way players in the NBA.
Thompson has put on two of the most amazing performances I’ve ever seen on a basketball court.
The first was in January of 2015, when he scored 37 points in the 3rd quarter against the Kings. He went 13-13 from the field for the quarter, including 9-9 from 3-point range.
Everything he chucked at the hoop went in. There was absolutely nothing the defense could do to contain him.
Jim Barnett finally just took off his headset and joined the Oracle crowd in giving Thompson a standing ovation towards the end of the quarter.
That was one of the most incredible games from that championship season, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a player get in the type of zone Thompson was for those 12 minutes.
The second moment happened this past season. The Warriors had won 73 games during the regular season, but were on the brink of being eliminated in game 6 of the Western Conference Finals by the Thunder.
Thompson put the team on his back towards the end of that tense game in Oklahoma City, refusing to let the dream season end.
He scored 41 points in game 6 while hitting a playoff record 11 shots from 3-point range. When Thompson finds a groove, there’s nobody more dangerous as a perimeter shooter.
At optimum hot streak levels, I might even give Thompson the edge over Curry. When he’s feeling it, keep feeding him, because nobody on the planet at that moment can approach Thompson’s precision from deep.
Thompson is a huge reason the Warriors have been successful over the last few seasons. He takes on much more defensive responsibility than Curry, usually drawing the other team’s best perimeter player.
It allows Curry to stay fresher on the offensive end, while also limiting his exposure on defense, which in fairness he has improved at, but still isn’t exactly a lockdown defender.
On offense, Thompson is one of the best catch-and-shoot guys in the entire league. Curling off a screen, there’s not many players you’d put more confidence in to knock down the jumper.
We’ll see if Thompson can continue his career trajectory and average more than the 22.1 points per game this upcoming season that he averaged last year.
With the addition of Kevin Durant to the lineup, that might be unlikely, but Thompson will continue to provide the team with elite perimeter shooting and solid defense.