Klay Thompson
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About the speaker
Klay Thompson is a 4x NBA champion, 5x NBA All-Star, and 2x All-NBA Third Team honoree. He has also won gold medals with the United States national team on their 2014 World Cup team and 2016 Olympic team. He’s a shooting guard and small forward... More
Klay Thompson is a 4x NBA champion, 5x NBA All-Star, and 2x All-NBA Third Team honoree. He has also won gold medals with the United States national team on their 2014 World Cup team and 2016 Olympic team. He’s a shooting guard and small forward for the Miami Heat.
The son of former NBA player Mychal Thompson, Klay played college basketball for three seasons with the Washington State Cougars, where he was a 2x first-team all-conference selection in the Pac-10 (now Pac-12) and became the school’s all-time leading scorer. He was selected in the first round of the 2011 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors with the 11th overall pick and became an integral part of the Warriors’ success, leading the team to multiple championships. In 2014, Thompson and Stephen Curry set a then-NBA record with 483 combined three-pointers in a season, earning the pair the nickname of “the Splash Brothers.”
In 2015, Thompson played a key role in the Warriors’ first NBA championship since 1975, the first of four titles he helped the franchise win, including back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018. He sustained an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals and missed the entirety of the 2019–20 season. Thompson then suffered a torn Achilles tendon while recovering from his knee injury and missed the entire 2020–21 season as well. He returned to play in January 2022 after missing nearly 31 months, capping the comeback by defeating the Boston Celtics in six games for the Warriors’ fourth championship in eight seasons.
Most recently, Thompson played two seasons for the Dallas Mavericks, arriving via a six-team trade on July 6, 2024. He made141 appearances with 80 starts and passed Damian Lillard for fourth all time in NBA 3-pointers made. He joined the Heat in August 2026, shortly after the franchise acquired Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis from Milwaukee.
Off the court, Thompson enjoys giving back to the community. In 2017, he and his family launched the Thompson Family Foundation to enrich the lives of youth in the United States and the Bahamas through fitness and education. The foundation keeps in mind three key goals: support the lives of all youth no matter their background, teach children the importance of teamwork through athletics, and show children the importance of pursuing an education outside of their athletic goals. In February 2022, the foundation formed The 941 Project to assist and support re-entry to the workplace for individuals from disadvantaged situations. The project provides employment education, interview training, career development support, and networking opportunities to workers who have suffered career setbacks. The project stems from the 941 days of hard work, perseverance, and dedication it took for Klay to return to the court after recovering from his two major injuries. By enduring the adversity of a two-and-a-half-year rehabilitation, Klay gained an overwhelming appreciation for how hard it is for people to recover from various obstacles, alongside the resources that are necessary to help people make their own career comeback.
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