Joe Lacob on Klay Thompson’s depature: He informed us that he did not want to come back

“We made an offer to him, it’s well chronicled, in the fall, substantially higher than what he ultimately did end up signing for. So I thought it was very fair,” Lacob said of the reported two-year, $48 million offer before last season. “Very fair, if not more than fair at the time. We’re trying to anticipate what the market is for him. We’re trying to be really fair to him and recognize him for who he is. And so we did that and that was not acceptable to them. That’s their choice. At that point, you know, we sort of have to go to free agency, we told them. Get closer to that day and see how the team is forming, so how we do this year, and see how the team-forming process was going. And we were doing that. “But you know, to be frank and honest, Klay made the decision prior to the beginning of free agency and he informed us of it that his intention was to not come back. … He called me and said the same things you heard (at Klay’s Dallas news conference). Klay is an open book. He felt he needed for a variety of reasons to have a fresh start.
Source: New York Times