The Warriors’ core, which won four NBA championships in eight seasons, is family.

Which made Klay Thompson’s discontent and subsequent departure two years ago all that much harder.

But more than a full season removed from Thompson leaving the Warriors for the Dallas Mavericks, the bitterness seems to have dissipated and given way to nostalgia.

Following the Warriors’ 126-116 Christmas Day win over the Mavericks, coach Steve Kerr was asked if he has gotten used to seeing Thompson on the other side, as an opponent.

“No,” Kerr told reporters at Chase Center. “I’ll never get used to seeing Klay on the other side. I miss Klay. Wish he was still here.”

Kerr’s comments echo what Steph Curry told ESPN’s Anthony Slater and Tim MacMahon in the lead-up to Thursday’s game between the Warriors and Mavericks.

“I wish he was still here,” Curry told Slater and MacMahon.

As much as Kerr and Curry miss Thompson, that page has been turned, at least for the moment.

Thompson has one more guaranteed year left on his three-year, $50 million contract with the Mavericks. But the team he joined before last season is completely different, and his role has changed as well. He’s no longer a starter, having been relegated to the bench unit.

Thompson picked the Mavericks over the Los Angeles Lakers because he wanted to play with Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. But Doncic was traded to the Lakers for Anthony Davis and Irving is recovering from a torn ACL.

Two years removed from the NBA Finals, the Mavericks, who are building around No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, are a borderline Western Conference play-in team this season.

That could open the door for the Mavericks to move Thompson to a contender before the NBA’s Feb. 5 trade deadline.

The Warriors believe they have the pieces to contend in the West, but they have yet to consistently show it. Thursday’s win pushes their record to 16-15.

So a return to the Warriors might not be the move Thompson is looking for, if he wants out of Dallas at all.

But Curry and Thompson didn’t shut the door on it when talking to Slater and MacMahon.

“I don’t know,” Thompson told Slater and MacMahon when asked if playing one final season with the Warriors was possible. “That’s a long ways away, man. That’s a lot of basketball to be had. I don’t know what the future holds.”

“It would be unbelievable,” Curry told Slater and MacMahon of a possible reunion. “If that time comes and that conversation is had, of course I’m calling him and saying, ‘We want you back.’ And hopefully that would be a welcome message to him. But as we stand right now, that does seem like a far distant reality. But so did him leaving.”

Curry and Kerr have publicly stated they miss Thompson in the Bay. That doesn’t mean the four-time NBA champion will come back someday.

But it at least plants the seed.

In today’s NBA, anything is possible.

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