Klay Thompson, the other Splash Bro, flies under the radar due to his MVP teammate but the Golden State Warriors would certainly not be defending an NBA championship without him (and his amazing performances.)
Klay doesn’t say much when in front of the mics, but make no mistake, dude is extremely confident and self-assured.
According to the Dubs’ front-office folks, Thompson occasionally boasts that the Cleveland Cavaliers did not select the correct Thompson in the 2011 Draft.
Per ESPN:
(Draymond) Green is the team’s fiery soul, and (Stephen) Curry the two-time MVP glitch in the system; when Curry and Thompson vacationed together in Spain a few years ago, locals handed Thompson their cameras and asked him to snap photos of them posing with Curry. […] “You don’t see it with Klay,” Steve Kerr said. “You don’t hear it. He rarely speaks. But that guy is a baller.”
As West Coast guys, both Kerr and (Luke) Walton can relate to the misconception. “There is definitely a laid-back Southern California vibe with Klay — and us,” Walton said. “It just looks like you don’t care. But Klay has a burning desire to be great, and to win. That night in Oklahoma City, he would not let us lose.” […] “He’s like the first Terminator — the one who doesn’t say anything, but computes his mission in his head,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers said. “The Terminator’s mission is to kill John Connor. Klay’s mission is to win games.”
Thompson holds a semi-tongue-in-cheek grudge against the Kings for daring to draft another shooter, Jimmer Fredette, over him. “I considered myself the best shooter in that draft, so when someone took another shooter over me, it was a slap in the face,” Thompson said after Game 1 of the Finals. […] He delights in reminding teammates and coaches behind closed doors that two Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, went ahead of him in the same draft; he quips that the Cavs took “the wrong Thompson,” team officials say. “He definitely remembers Kyrie went before him,” assistant GM Kirk Lacob said. “I can say that for sure.”
