Klay Thompson makes it look effortless to be on an NBA court with his lethal jump shot and ability to come off of screens and nail deep-range shots with remarkable accuracy.
He is one of the best marksman in NBA history and is very laid back and non-ego driven, a necessary quality when at times being the forgotten star on a team full of them.
His best performance of his NBA career came last season when he dropped a ridiculous 60 points on the Indiana Pacers in only three quarters of action.
You would think he had been practicing hard all week and highly motivated to dominate before a classic performance like that, but not really.
Here is Kevin Durant in an interview on The Bill Simmons Podcast (transcribed by Uproxx):
“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.”
This is a hilarious and awesome anecdote and a view into Thompson’s laid back (maybe a little too laid back) personality.
How many NBA stars could you seriously imagine completely sleeping through practice and not having a care in the world? Not many.
