Six years ago, the Golden States Warriors were offered a deal they likely would not think twice grabbing today. The Oklahoma City Thunder reached out to the GSW front office and offered not Kevin Durant but James Harden. In exchange, OKC wanted to have Klay Thompson.
This would have been a blockbuster trade deal was dug out by Fadeaway World, and per the report, the Thunder was canvassing swapping possibilities on Harden. Of course, what the team was looking for was a gem like Harden, who ended up winning the 2018 MVP race.
The Thunder's talent search pointed them to the Bay Area and Thompson emerged as the top candidate. The GSW shooting guard was making his mark then. He was viewed as a rising star and it proved correct. Thompson flourished and even exceeded expectations, and one can never know if his progress would have been the same had he ended up with OKC.
"The first team that the Thunder called when looking for potential suitors of James Harden was the Warriors. They had a growing interest in Klay Thompson, who was looking like he was going to have a very bright future, despite some apparent problems with his thought process," said the original report by Fansided.
As fate would have it, the Warriors said no to the deal but not because Thompson was already a prized talent in 2013 and his team was not interested in an exchange. What killed the possible trade was Golden State's fear of incurring luxury tax penalties.
In addition, the Thunder proved not flexible on other terms and as a result, no deal was agreed upon.
OKC moved on and Harden found a new home with the Houston Rockets, where unsurprisingly the shooting guard excelled even more. He has become a franchise player there, took home an MVP trophy, and likely have a good shot at winning an NBA ring teaming up with Russell Westbrook, also an MVP winner.
As for Thompson, things weren't too bad for him as well. He missed the chance playing with KD in 2013 but Durant transferred to the Warriors anyway and the two had successful runs winning NBA titles.
Thompson has three NBA rings to his name and has been on the All-Star list since 2015. He was close to earning a fourth Larry O'Brien for the Warriors last season but was hurt in a Finals game. He is expected to be sidelined for most of the regular season games but it's quite clear that the best days are still ahead of him.
