Klay Thompson recalls plunking Kevin Love as kids on Oregon baseball diamond
Warriors star Klay Thompson grew up playing baseball with Cavs' Kevin Love
>Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson (11) battles Cleveland Cavaliers’
Kevin Love (0) for a rebound during the second quarter of Game 3 of the
NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on Wednesday, June
7, 2017. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
>Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson (11) battles Cleveland Cavaliers’
Kevin Love (0) for a rebound during the second quarter of Game 3 of the
NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on Wednesday, June
7, 2017. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
By MICHAEL NOWELS | mnowels@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: October 26, 2021 at 11:34 a.m. | UPDATED: October 26, 2021 at
11:34 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/10/26/klay-thompson-recalls-plunking-kevin-love-as-kids-on-oregon-baseball-diamond/

It’s a well-known tidbit that Warriors star Klay Thompson and Cavs
forward Kevin Love were childhood pals growing up in Oregon and played
on the same Little League team.

Warriors fans didn’t know until this week, though, that Thompson could
see the future and preemptively took it out on Love as a child.

During the Warriors’ recent visit to Portland for a preseason game
against the Blazers, Thompson took a trip to his old stomping grounds,
Riverdale Grade School, and a Warriors film crew tagged along.

After saying hello to a gym class and showing off his shooting skills,
Thompson moved to the baseball diamond.

“I faced Kevin Love here,” Thompson recalled to the camera crew while
sitting in the dugout. “I was pitching, he was batting. I beaned him
right in the back.

“Knew he was going to be a Cav.”

Thompson and the Warriors developed quite a cross-conference rivalry
with Love and the Cavaliers over four consecutive NBA Finals matchups
from 2015-2018. The Warriors went 3-1 in those series before LeBron
James left for the Lakers and the Cavs fell to the bottom of the Eastern
Conference.

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What’s unclear, though, is whether this intentional message sent from
one future All-Star to another was during practice while they were still
on the same youth team, or in the heat of a game after they split.

Thompson, who is a year and a half younger than Love, moved to Orange
County and attended high school at Santa Margarita Catholic High School.
Love stayed in the Portland area for his prep career and starred at Lake
Oswego High, where he became the Gatorade National Male Athlete of the
Year before heading to UCLA.

Love is still in Cleveland and may have his shot at revenge on Thompson
— for the Finals losses and the plunking — on Jan. 9, when the Cavs come
to the Bay Area. The teams meet next month, too, but Thompson won’t be
back in the lineup by then as he rehabs his Achilles injury. He could be
on the floor in the new year.

For the full background on the Thompson-Love diamond days, read former
Bay Area News Group writer Daniel Brown’s story from the 2016 Finals.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/06/03/klay-thompson-and-kevin-love-go-back-to-little-league-days/

[video: All-Access | Klay visits his hometown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3UtSFw4LpU]

--
Michael Nowels | Digital Sports Strategist
Mike covers sports.