NBA All-Star 2017 News: Klay Thompson Wants Cavs In Finals Again, Has Odd Pre-Game Ritual

The emergence of Klay Thompson as one of the NBA’s best players has many observers placing him among the greatest sharpshooters of all time. The Golden State Warriors guard’s form, success rate and prolific scoring have been nearly unrivaled in his six seasons of playing professional basketball. Case and point: Back in December he dropped 60 points in only 29 minutes of action and efficiently knocked down eight of his 14 three-point attempts.

Could it be the tutelage of his father, former NBA player Mychal Thompson? His passion for the game? Or even a tireless work ethic? The answer to each question is yes. But just ahead of defending his 3-point shooting title and joining the rest of the league’s top talent at this weekend's NBA All-Star festivities in New Orleans, he said there were also other reasons — or rituals, rather.

“Yea I gotta have two Tums before every game, because I remember I had a 40-point game one night a few years ago,” Thompson said of the antacid tablets during an interview Tuesday while promoting Built Chocolate Milk, one of his sponsors. “I wasn’t feeling that good, so I had two Tums and ever since then I really haven’t broken the streak. I don’t know if it’s good for you, but two Tums every game, 82 games a year, believe it or not.”

Athletes all over the world are well known for following their routines or superstitions before any competition, and Thompson was no different. Tennis great and 23-time grand slam champion Serena Williams has to bounce the ball five times before her first serve and twice on her second. Former New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi used to wear a golden thong to get out of hitting slumps, according to Men’s Fitness. However funny that may sound, the rituals have clearly worked for some of sports most notable figures around the world, and Thompson was now in that equation.

“And I like a cold towel, a wet towel before I go out on the court, 'cause it wakes you up. It kind of shocks you,” he added.

Thompson stressed that preferred to stick to a fairly basic workout routine during the NBA’s grueling schedule. Yoga – one of the toughest physical challenges he said he’s had – has helped him stay loose since he said he’s usually “stiff as a board.”

Turning to the second-half of the season, Thompson was reticent to say if the Warriors could equal or better their record-shattering 73-9 regular season mark from last year.

“That will be hard. That means we’ll have to rattle off 27 in a row,” he said. “It’s definitely possible, but it would just be extremely, extremely hard. I think we’re more worried about staying healthy and being at our peak performance come May and June. We aren’t really setting out sights on a regular season number, we just want to finish the season strong and lock up a No. 1 seed.”

But there was one other thing Thompson said he was looking forward to as the season moved closer to the playoffs – playing against the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals for a third straight year. The Cavs and their star player LeBron James famously stormed back from a 3-1 series deficit to deny Golden State a second straight championship last season.

“I would like to see them, I think we owe them a little redemption. And it’s a great rivalry for the league, so I would like to see the Cavs again,” Thompson said.