For the first time in more than a year, Stephen Curry admitted out loud what many Warriors fans have quietly felt since last summer. Even after moving on competitively, some separations never stop hurting.

That truth surfaced ahead of Klay Thompson’s Christmas Day return to Chase Center, when ESPN sat down with Curry, Draymond Green, and Thompson to reflect on where things stand now. And at the center of it all was a simple, emotional line from Curry that cut through every basketball explanation.

“I wish he was still here,” Curry said.

Curry wasn’t speaking hypothetically or nostalgically for content’s sake. The moment came naturally, seated in the same tunnel outside the Warriors’ locker room where his son Canon once went viral, greeting Thompson like family. Seventeen months after Thompson left Golden State for Dallas, Curry admitted the emotional adjustment still isn’t complete.

Watching the Mavericks, Curry said, has become a reflex. His eyes track Thompson instinctively, the same way they did for more than a decade when the Splash Brothers moved in perfect rhythm.

“It’s natural,” Curry explained, noting that even the night before the interview, he caught himself monitoring Thompson’s game. “Those are the moments it hits.”

For a backcourt that redefined spacing, movement, and perimeter gravity, separation wasn’t just professional. It rewired habits built over thirteen seasons of shared muscle memory.

That emotional gap hasn’t stayed on the court. Curry revealed that the reality of Thompson’s departure has even confused his own household.

During a recent broadcast, Curry shouted, “Shoot it, Klay!” as Thompson hit late-game threes for Dallas. His son immediately asked why Klay was playing somewhere else and why his dad wasn’t there.

Curry described those conversations as reminders of “how special of a thing it was,” and how jarring it still feels to explain that the partnership is truly over. For Warriors fans, that disconnect mirrors the broader discomfort of seeing Thompson in anything other than blue and gold.

Inside the Dallas reunion that reset everything

The emotional distance finally shifted in February 2025, when Curry made a deliberate decision to confront what had gone unspoken. During a Warriors road trip to Dallas, he organized a private dinner at Thompson’s new home.

It wasn’t flashy. Curry and Draymond Green arrived in an Uber. Assistant coach Chris DeMarco joined them. Thompson joked that Curry “had to move to Texas” just to finally come over.

What followed was intentionally ordinary. Chess. Table soccer. Putting on Thompson’s backyard green. Stories about bike routes and life away from the Bay.

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“There wasn’t a need to address feelings,” Green said later. “It was just friends kicking it.”

But the impact ran deeper. Curry called the night “cathartic,” acknowledging that, intentional or not, it marked the emotional finality of the Splash Brothers as teammates. After months of frostiness and competitive tension, it was the first time the trio felt normal again, even knowing nothing would be the same.

That reunion mattered because the split hadn’t been clean. Curry previously admitted that screaming “You better stay here!” after a dagger three against Dallas was rooted in loyalty, not trash talk. Thompson, meanwhile, had distanced himself publicly, choosing a quieter approach to processing the breakup.

Dallas allowed both sides to reset. By the end of the night, they left not as unresolved rivals, but as friends who finally accepted the line between past and present.

“Twelve years doesn’t just fade,” Thompson said later. “No matter how it ends.”

While the emotional chapter closed, the basketball realities moved fast. Golden State pivoted aggressively, landing Jimmy Butler III as the franchise reshaped its identity around physicality and late-game shot creation. Dallas, meanwhile, transformed entirely, pairing Thompson with Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and rookie phenom Cooper Flagg after the Luka Doncic trade.

Thompson’s role shrank, but his purpose evolved. He’s now a spacing piece and mentor, embracing the responsibility of guiding Flagg in the same way veterans once guided him. “Helping him matters more than any scoring night,” Thompson said.

When Thompson walks into Chase Center on Christmas, it won’t just be another reunion game. Everything Curry admitted will confirm that some partnerships define eras, identities, and people.

The Warriors have moved forward. The Mavericks have moved on. But Curry’s confession proves one thing hasn’t changed.

Even now, even as opponents, a part of the dynasty still feels unfinished.