Mar 29, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard Klay Thompson (31) celebrates his team’s win against the Chicago Bulls at United Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images David Banks-Imagn Images

Mavericks’ Klay Thompson makes bold claim about being a top 5 NBA shooter

Originally posted on Dallas Mavericks on SI
By Austin Veazey | Last updated Sep 9, 2025 8:00 AM ET

Klay Thompson is undoubtedly one of the greatest shooters in NBA history. He formed the greatest shooting backcourt of all time with Stephen Curry on the Golden State Warriors, but he's still shown to be a great shooter as he's moved to the Dallas Mavericks.

The future Hall-of-Famer recently appeared on the "Showtime with Michael Cooper" podcast, talking some ball with the Los Angeles Lakers legend, where he was asked to give the five best shooters in league history. He's a humble guy, but not too humble to where he couldn't name himself in the top five.

"Steph. Reggie [Miller]... I like Reggie's highlight tape because he has so many game-winning shots in his arsenal," Thompson said. "I'm gonna go Ray [Allen], because Ray obviously held the record for most threes made in NBA history for all those years.

"I'll go number four, I'm gonna go Larry Bird, just because Larry was a three-time three-point champion. Didn't even take his warm-up off when he won it. That's ridiculous. He just walked in there, didn't even have to take his warm-up off, got the win. Number five, I'm gonna go with myself because, you know, I do have some prominent records now."

A Common Theme to Thompson's Selections

Four of Thompson's picks for the best shooters in NBA history are in the top six for most three-pointers made in NBA history. The only two omissions? James Harden and Damian Lillard. Each has an argument to be on that list, especially for the level of difficulty those two players have lived with in their careers, but it's hard to go against Thompson.

Bird is the only one not near the top of the list, and his shooting statistics may not back up his placement in Thompson's list, as he didn't really shoot a lot of them in his career, but he was money when he needed to be. Over the final eight seasons of his career, he shot 39.8% from deep on about three attempts per game, a rarity for his era.

But Curry, Thompson, Allen, and Miller are all easy selections and would be at the top of the list of most people's lists for the best shooters.

This article first appeared on Dallas Mavericks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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