Klay Thompson Fondly Recalls the Time He Beaned Kevin Love in Little League
That’s one stacked Little League game
Long before he became one of the deadliest long-range shooters in NBA history, Klay Thompson struggled with his accuracy on the baseball diamond.
Earlier this month, Thompson had a chance to visit his former elementary school when the Warriors were in Portland for their preseason opener. He found his old class picture in the hallway, shot some jumpers in the gym and went to check out the baseball field where he used to play Little League games. And Thompson wasn’t the only future NBA star to play baseball there.
“I faced Kevin Love here,” Thompson recalled. “I was pitching, he was batting. I beaned him. Right in the back.
“Knew he was going to be a Cav.”
Klay wasn’t kidding, either. Love confirmed on Instagram that he took a fastball right to the shoulder in one of their heated games between Lakeside Lumber and Superior Fence.
But, despite the beanball, Love and Thompson’s Little League rivalry wasn’t nearly as contentious as it was during the 2015-2018 NBA Finals. The two were very good friends growing up in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
“Kevin would come over to the house almost every weekend. We were very close to the Loves,” Klay’s father, Mychal Thompson, told the Portland Tribune in 2014.
They weren’t always on different baseball teams, though.
The Warriors–Cavaliers rivalry in the second half of the last decade was one of the greatest in NBA history. It sounds like it had its roots on a baseball field in Oregon.
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