[Weiss] Klay on JT’s return: “I know what it’s like. It’s not fun watching your teammates compete without you…you know what you’re capable of, how much you can help. So that’s the worst feeling, feeling like a prisoner in your own body. For him to do what he did tonight, I was very happy for him.”
Source is Jared Weiss’ latest [article](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7096084/2026/03/07/jayson-tatum-return-achilles-boston-celtics/) in The Athletic following the Mavs vs. Celtics game last night. Below is an excerpt from the article with Weiss’ interview with Klay about what he and Tatum talked about post-game:
> Klay Thompson gets it. He’s been there. When the Mavs wings stood across from Tatum Friday evening, he recognized an anxious stage of an all-too-familiar journey.
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> Thompson was an instrumental piece of one of the greatest dynasties of the modern NBA. Then, in the middle of his prime, he tore his ACL in Game 6 of the 2019 Finals before tearing his right Achilles in November 2020, just as he was approaching a return to play. It took him two years of painstaking rehab to return, only to win one last title with the Warriors over Tatum and the Celtics in 2022. As tough as the physical work was to come back, the isolation of watching his team continue on without him was just as crushing.
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> “I know what that’s like. It’s not fun watching your teammates compete without you, especially a caliber player like Jayson, one of the best players in the world,” Thompson told The Athletic. “You know what you’re capable of, you know how much you can help. So that’s the worst feeling, feeling like a prisoner in your own body. And for him to do what he did tonight, I was very happy for him.”
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> Thompson learned that recovery takes patience and understanding. It’s hard to understand just how much patience. When Tatum was first able to walk in a boot, he headed straight for the court. He had to get shots up. That’s what he’s been doing just about every day of his life.
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> He was dismayed when he was told no, that he couldn’t even do form shooting. Even stationary. Just the suggestion of his heel lifting off the ground was off limits. The calf shrivels after the injury, so rehab starts with the simplest maneuvers before even getting back on the court.
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> “It’s really tedious. The atrophy after surgery is serious,” Thompson said. “You lose a lot of strength in your calf muscle. So there’s just like three, four months of just pure calf raises and really tedious work with your toes, grabbing towels and marbles.”
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> Throughout Tatum’s rehab, every rep had to be counted. His trainer, Nick Sang, would monitor his shooting drills to count how many times he raised his calf, making sure Tatum didn’t exceed quota. Their partnership was vital to Tatum’s expedient process.
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> …
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> Tatum has always had a strong support system, but it has grown now that he is part of an unfortunate fraternity. When the final buzzer sounded, Tatum walked through a sea of people to find Thompson at half court. They hugged it out and spoke for a few seconds, connecting about life on the other side of the return.
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> “I just told him how happy I was for him and if I were to do it again, I would have given myself more grace, especially the first year I came back,” Thompson said. “You have rough nights from the field shooting, and you want to go in a dark place and think you’re not the same player. But that’s not the case. With modern medicine and advancements and training, you can definitely get back to All-NBA level, and he will do that.”