Thompson ready to go viral again in China
Fun-loving shooting guard’s hijinks make him a fan favorite
SHENZHEN, China — As Klay Thompson lay on a blacktop after a botched dunk attempt in June, thousands of Chinese fans chuckling at his expense, he hoped his blooper wouldn’t make its way stateside.
“I guess I forgot the Internet existed,” Thompson later said. “Now I know.”
It didn’t take long for video of the Golden State shooting guard’s failed 360-degree dunk in Chengdu to surface on Twitter. Within hours, it had rippled through the blogosphere, introducing the world to a phenomenon known as #ChinaKlay.
Over the next nine days, videos leaked of Thompson airballing a three-pointer, losing an arm-wrestling match to a Chinese woman, hyping up a night club, popping Champagne, doing some sort of choreographed dance routine and nearly spitting out an apparently scalding-hot roll.
In the U.S., with no context for Thompson’s hijinks, fans were left marveling at his unbridled joy. One of the NBA’s most understated All-Stars was embracing his time in China with a fervor seldom seen in a league rife with bloated egos.
Now, as Golden State begins its weeklong trek through China for two exhibitions against Minnesota, many are wondering
what #ChinaKlay has in store next.
“If I could do it all over again, I would be Klay,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “I mean that. I want to be Klay. He’s got it figured out. Just wants to play hoops and have fun and play with his dog. He’s the most low-maintenance guy on Earth.”
In mid-June, Seth Tarver, one of Thompson’s closest childhood friends, received a text from an assistant of Thompson’s: “Hey, send us your passport information so you can go to China.” It came as a surprise to Tarver, who hadn’t even known his famous buddy was planning to visit Asia. Two-and-a-half weeks later, Tarver was among Thompson’s seven-person traveling party that boarded a 16-hour flight to Chengdu.
When they landed, severely jet-lagged, a driver took them to an outdoor court in the heart of the city in southwest China. Thompson, in the country for a 10-day tour to celebrate the 10-year, $80 million endorsement extension he had recently inked with Chinese sportswear brand Anta, was supposed to shoot some jumpers, sign some autographs and head to his hotel for a nap.
But when he saw at least 5,000 people packed around the basketball court, Thompson decided to join the pick-up game that had been scheduled. At one point, he crossed midcourt, dribbled between his legs four times and, as the crowd roared in anticipation, hoisted a deep three-pointer. When the ball careened out of bounds, Thompson, with an aw-shucks grin, raised his hands to his head in mock horror.
Later, for reasons that remain unknown, Thompson tried unsuccessfully five times to hammer home a 360-degree dunk. Before the attempt that went viral, he pointed toward a fan and raised his eyebrows as if to say, “I got this.” He did not. After spiking the ball off the front of the rim, Thompson crumpled to the court, rolled onto his back and hopped to his feet.
The announcer of the event, trying to ease Thompson’s humiliation, shouted: “It’s OK! It’s OK! It’s OK!” But the damage had been done. Thanks to a social-media platform banned in mainland China, millions of Americans would see Thompson whiff on that dunk.
“There’s no reason why, two weeks after the Finals and knowing he hadn’t touched the ball since Game 5, he’s trying to go out there and do a 360 dunk,” Stephen Curry said. “He was just feeding off the energy of the crowd, because they love him that much.”
Other than the dunk, Thompson’s tour of China was an unmitigated success. Since Thompson returned to the U.S., his agent, Greg Lawrence, has noticed new endorsement interest from Chinese companies. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Thompson’s trip through Chengdu, Shenyang and Guangzhou, however, was that it showed fans another side of him.
Before #ChinaKlay, many didn’t know what to make of Thompson.
While most players his caliber demand the ball, Thompson prides himself on his ability to affect a game without it. He abhors media attention and often loses his train of thought during interviews. When he signed with Lawrence last fall, Thompson explained that he’d rather hang out with his beloved English bulldog, Rocco, than shoot a promotional video.
Fans were equally puzzled and amused last season when he made a paper airplane after a press conference, signed a toaster for a fan and spent a day off at Dolores Park in San Francisco playing the trumpet in dirty sweatpants. Thompson, for all his unintentional charm, was a bit of an enigma when he flew to Chengdu.
“When he was in China, people got to see that he has an approach to life that’s very joyful,” Warriors President Rick Welts said. “That’s who Klay is. He enjoys life every minute and doesn’t stress about a lot of the things people stress about.”
Six years into his NBA career, Thompson is still somewhat unaware of his own fame.
One Friday night, after ignoring Tarver’s plea to stay in the car while Tarver picked up their order at Wingstop, Thompson was shocked to find fans swarming him as soon as he walked through the door. Thompson was disappointed in January when the athletic director at his old high school advised him not to attend the varsity boys basketball team’s game that night. With such short notice, the school couldn’t organize enough security to accommodate Thompson’s visit.
During his China tour, he was in a near-constant state of amazement. It baffled Thompson that, nearly 7,000 miles away from the Bay Area, thousands of people would don his Anta gear and cram into a mega-mall to watch him shoot a handful of jumpers. Never mind the fact that he had drawn plenty of big crowds when he visited Beijing and other major Chinese cities two summers earlier.
“Klay was already very excited because the Warriors had just won the championship not too long before, and he was still riding that wave,” Tarver said of Thompson’s recent visit. “When you get to China, it’s like a whole new wave because they’re super hyped, too. It was just like a tsunami at that point.”
Added Lawrence, who has already begun planning Thompson’s 2018 tour of China next summer: “A lot of the players in the past who’ve gone over there, they haven’t really gone out and dipped their foot in the culture of China. Klay, he’s not just going to sit in his hotel room all day. He was out there going to the hotel bars and doing all that stuff. Just having fun with friends and embracing it. Obviously, where he goes, someone picks it up on a camera phone.”
Behind closed doors, some Warriors have bemoaned having to go to China mid-preseason. A trip across the world is a big ask for a team preparing to defend an NBA title.
As for Thompson? He is anxious for a #ChinaKlay encore.
“I’m very aware of what I’m getting into this time around,” Thompson said with a chuckle.