Mychal Thompson: Warriors better than Showtime Lakers

Like son, like father.

Mychal Thompson, a pivotal member of the Showtime Lakers that dominated the 1980s, agreed with his son Klay's assessment that the present day Golden State Warriors would beat his teams.

The difference, Mychal noted, would be Klay's and Stephen Curry's absurd 3-point shooting.

"We shot eight threes a game," Mychal said Monday on the ESPN LA radio show he co-hosts, as relayed by Diamond Leung of the Mercury News. "They make eight threes a quarter. Golden State would outscore us 50-15 on threes. So how are we supposed to win? So I agree with Klay. I think they would beat us. We couldn't keep up with them offensively because of the way they could score so quickly."

In their championship-winning years, those Magic Johnson-led teams tried less than six threes per game, and yet they consistently led the league in offensive rating thanks to the brilliance of Hall of Famers Johnson, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, and James Worthy.

For comparison, the 1986-87 Lakers posted an offensive rating of 115.6, topping the 114.5 mark posted by the Warriors this season.

Nevertheless, where Mychal differs from other notables from his era is in his willingness to admit the game has changed, and in the modern game, the Warriors have no equal.

"I am a man secure in my legacy, secure in my accomplishments. I don't have to be, 'Oh, we are better than them.' I'm not that grumpy old man even though I sound like that many a time. But I can admit with someone who I think the new era is better than something else or has changed from the time I played. And the way they play, we would have a hard time keeping up because like I said, our game wasn't shooting threes, which theirs are. And three beats two."

But whereas Mychal is willing to give up the mantle to his son, others on the Showtime Lakers might not be so willing.

"Magic and Kareem, they'll probably disagree with me," he said.