Celtics

Klay Thompson might be a better shooter than an actor.

Klay Thompson Larry Bird
Injured Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson, center, gestures during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

In a video posted to his Instagram story on Sunday, Warriors star Klay Thompson showed off a Larry Bird Halloween costume complete with short shorts and moves Thompson called “saucy” in the caption.

“Happy Halloween you filthy animals,” Thompson wrote, adding, “P.s. Larry was saucy.”

The imitation isn’t exactly true to form: Bird was incredibly smooth, but he didn’t really dance or crossover like Thompson. Still, Thompson was certainly correct about two things: Players in the 1980s wore incredibly short shorts (albeit without the compression shorts Thompson wore), and the Celtics legend was saucy in his own way.

Thompson suffered a torn ACL during the NBA Finals in 2019. As he rehabbed in November of 2020, he tore his right Achilles — a devastating setback that kept him out for the 2020-21 season. Per The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Thompson is expected to be cleared for full contact in November.

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Thompson began joining the Warriors for practice in September.

“Everyone’s excited that Klay is out on the floor,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He basically did every single thing in practice today. We didn’t scrimmage, we didn’t have any live contact, but Klay is just so happy to be playing and we’re all so happy to see him part of it. So just a really good first day, first couple of days, and good energy as we start to get rolling.”

“Shooting the lights out,” Kerr added. “His team won the daily shooting competition. And he was smiling, laughing, joking around, it was really fun to see the old Klay back.”

The Warriors have started the season 5-1 and are currently tied for first with the Jazz.