Klay Thompson is as unique a personality as you’ll find in an NBA All-Star. The Warriors sharp-shooting guard is as laid back as any player in the league and his laissez-faire attitude works perfectly for being a tertiary star on the NBA’s ultimate super team.
Thompson’s abilities on the court are unassailable. He’s one of the best three-point shooters in NBA history already and he’s quietly a crucial defensive presence on the perimeter for Golden State. However, his unassuming nature and willingness to operate out of the spotlight makes him something of a mysterious figure, which only adds to his legend in Oakland.
His teammates even find Thompson to be something of an enigma. Sometimes it’s finding out that he’s been letting loose in China at dance clubs. Other times, it’s not knowing where he is during practice. Kevin Durant recently told a phenomenal story about that latter situation on the Bill Simmons Podcast, explaining that the day before Thompson had his incredible 60-point game, Klay no-showed practice and had a fairly incredible explanation.
“Oh, so like the (day) before he had 60, Klay just missed practice. He didn’t come,” Durant said. “He just … nobody like, you know when practice starts, it was like, ‘Where the hell is Klay?’ We called him, called him, called him. He didn’t come to practice. He just like, just didn’t come. And the next night he had 60.”
“You still don’t know what happened?!” Simmons asked.
“Don’t know what happened,” Durant said. “I think he said, like, ‘Man, I was an hour late, two hours late. I was like, I might as well just stay in bed.’ And he came out and had 60. I was like, this guy, if everybody in the world was like Klay the universe would be better.”
It’s a phenomenal story and easily believable based off of what we know about Thompson. It’s also extremely relatable because everyone has had one of those days at some point in their life where they forget to set an alarm, wake up and realize they’re already and hour late, and just punt on the entire day and go back to sleep. It’s just not something you often hear happening to professional athletes, but this only further endears Klay to me and probably many others.
The best part is Durant continues on raving about Klay being amazing explaining how China Klay is actually “every day Klay” and how he’s “one of the greatest people I’ve ever met.” The gist of this whole thing is that Klay Thompson is incredible and is also the NBA’s most relatable star.
