Klay Thompson’s father, Mychal, was born in the Bahamas before being recruited as a teenager to play basketball in the United States. His older brother, Mychel, played several years with the Bahamas national team, for which he is currently an assistant coach. Who will sit in the Bahamas’ coaching chair early next summer, when the team makes its first bid for the Olympics? Chris DeMarco, assistant coach of the Golden State Warriors, who has worked closely with Klay Thompson in the Bay Area for more than a decade.
Needless to say, Klay’s ties to the beautiful island of the West Indies and its national basketball program run very, very deep. When asked if his son might give up his eligibility in the U.S. to wear the Bahamas jersey in 2024, Mychal Thompson admitted that possibility.
“We’ll see.”, said to Marc Stein, an NBA insider.
Canada, France, The Bahamas and Milwaukee, too … there is international intrigue all over the NBA map in my latest This Week In Basketball column: https://t.co/klPSSIQ6in
– Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 28, 2023
Klay Thompson has won three gold medals with Team USA in the international arena, most recently alongside Draymond Green at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He made his professional debut with USA Basketball at the 2014 FIBA World Cup, five years after initially wearing the red, white and blue at the U19 World Championships between his freshman and sophomore years at Washington State.
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