How tall is Klay Thompson?

Klay Thompson's official NBA height

Klay Thompson is listed by NBA.com at 6′5″ (1.96 m) and 200 lb (91 kg), the figure this site uses as 195.6 cm. His position appears as guard-forward. That hyphenated label describes a player who has spent his career at shooting guard but who, at his size and with his defensive range, has regularly guarded small forwards and been used on the wing in bigger lineups.

His listing has been stable, and that is worth noting. Ahead of the 2019–20 season the NBA changed its guidelines so that a player's official height had to be measured without shoes, as NBA.com explained when reporting Victor Wembanyama's barefoot 7′3½″ listing. Before that, teams often quoted heights in sneakers, which could add an inch or more. When the barefoot rule arrived, a number of listed heights changed. Thompson's 6′5″ survived the switch unchanged through his years with the Golden State Warriors, which suggests it was close to a true barefoot figure from the start. NBA.com now shows him on the Miami Heat roster wearing No. 11. This site records his weight as 93 kg, a couple of kilograms above the current NBA.com figure. The gap reflects the normal drift in listed weights over a long career.

Height in context: the prototype shooting guard

At 6′5″, Thompson is not unusually tall for a shooting guard. Several of the position's greatest players were an inch or two taller (see the table below). What sets him apart is how fully he uses the height he has.

His shot is the clearest example. Thompson shoots from a high release with a short, repeatable motion and very little wasted movement before the ball leaves his hands. Combined with his frame, that high release point lets him shoot over most guards who close out on him. That explains why so many of his threes came off screens and quick catches rather than dribble moves. He has rarely needed to create space. He has only needed a moment to catch, rise and release.

Height also shaped his defensive reputation. NBA.com records an All-Defensive Second Team selection in 2018–19. At his size he could switch onto bigger wings, contest shots from taller players, and still move his feet against smaller guards. In the Warriors' title years, that versatility let Golden State put Stephen Curry on easier assignments while Thompson took the opponent's most dangerous perimeter scorer.

Two record nights that show what his size allows

Thompson's two most famous records both come from the same physical skill: he can get his shot off in a fraction of a second against tight defense.

The 37-point quarter

On 23 January 2015, against the Sacramento Kings, Thompson scored 37 points in the third quarter of a 126–101 Warriors win. NBA.com's account of the night records that he made all 13 of his field-goal attempts in the period, including nine three-pointers, plus two free throws. The 37 points broke the single-quarter record of 33, set by George Gervin in 1978 and matched by Carmelo Anthony in 2008. The nine threes also set a quarter record, beating the eight shared by Michael Redd and Joe Johnson. He finished with 52 points, and he was named an All-Star reserve six days later, his first selection.

Fourteen threes in Chicago

On 29 October 2018, against the Chicago Bulls, he made 14 three-pointers, breaking the single-game record of 13 set by Curry. ESPN reported that he scored 52 points on 18-of-29 shooting, 14 of 24 from three, in about 27 minutes, in a 149–124 win. His 10 threes in the first half tied the record for a half. NBA.com's record list still showed his 14 as the single-game mark entering the 2024–25 season, with Damian Lillard's 13 in 2023 among the closest challengers.

How Klay measures up against shooting-guard greats

Comparing Thompson with the best-known shooting guards on this site shows how ordinary 6′5″ is at the position, and how differently players of similar size have built careers.

Jordan and Bryant, listed at 198 cm, are only about an inch taller than Thompson, and Devin Booker shares his 6′5″ NBA listing, yet all three built their games around creating shots off the dribble. Thompson took the opposite route, becoming one of the most efficient off-ball shooters in league history. His NBA.com records for made threes in his first five seasons (1,060) and first six (1,328) show how quickly that approach paid off.

The comparison with Allen Iverson, listed at 183 cm, is the most striking. Iverson gave up more than 12 cm to Thompson and played as a ball-dominant scorer, a reminder that height sets the options for a guard's game but does not decide which one he picks.

A basketball family measured in inches

Thompson grew up in a family of athletes, and NBA.com's biography sets out the details.

His father, Mychal Thompson, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft, chosen by the Portland Trail Blazers. He played 12 seasons and won two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers. NBA.com and Basketball-Reference list him at 6′10″ (208 cm) and 226 lb. That makes the father about 12 cm (5 inches) taller than the son. NBA.com describes Mychal as a big man who played close to the rim and made exactly one three-pointer in his career, which makes a striking contrast with a son who has made hundreds in a single season.

His older brother Mychel played five games for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2011–12 and later four seasons with the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League. His younger brother Trayce went into professional baseball as a 2009 second-round pick of the Chicago White Sox. His mother, Julie, played volleyball at the University of San Francisco.

The father-and-son pairing is a useful lesson in how height maps onto role. Mychal's extra five inches made him a post player in the 1980s. Klay's 6′5″ made him a perimeter player in a league that has since moved toward the three-point line.

Before the NBA: high school and Washington State

Thompson's growth into a 6′5″ guard came at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in southern California. NBA.com records that as a senior in 2007–08 he led the team to a 30–5 record and a state title, scoring 37 points with seven threes in the championship game. The school retired his No. 1 in 2017.

At Washington State, he played 98 games over three seasons, averaging 17.9 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists, and was twice named first-team All-Pac-10. He left as the school's all-time leader in made threes (242) and third in total points (1,756). Golden State drafted him 11th overall in 2011.

The Splash Brothers: Klay and Curry by the numbers

Thompson's career is closely tied to Stephen Curry's, and the height difference between them helped define the Warriors' backcourt. Curry, listed on this site at 188 cm, is the smaller ball-handler who creates his own shot off the dribble. Thompson, about 7.5 cm (3 inches) taller, played off the ball and took the tougher defensive assignment.

NBA.com's bio records that the pair share a record for consecutive seasons with at least 200 made threes, which Thompson managed in seven straight seasons from 2012–13 to 2018–19. Thompson led the league in made threes in one season with 301 and won the Three-Point Contest at the 2016 All-Star Weekend. Over his Golden State career he averaged 19.8 points on 41.6 percent three-point shooting across 716 games.

His honors on NBA.com include four NBA championships, five All-Star selections (2015–2019), two All-NBA Third Team selections (2014–15 and 2015–16), an All-Rookie selection, Olympic gold with Team USA in 2016 and FIBA World Cup gold in 2014.

Two serious injuries and the return

Between 2019 and 2022, Thompson missed more than two full seasons. ESPN's reporting details the sequence. He tore the ACL in his left knee in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals. Then, while working back in November 2020, he tore the Achilles tendon in his right leg during a scrimmage. ESPN noted that his return in January 2022 made him one of very few NBA players to come back from two catastrophic lower-leg injuries in a row with no games in between. The Warriors won the championship that June, his fourth.

The injuries matter to his height story for one practical reason. Thompson's game had always relied on lift, balance and a stable base for his shot. Coming back, he leaned even more on the efficient catch-and-shoot game that his size and high release make possible. That game asks far less of explosive first steps than an isolation scorer's does.

After Golden State: a new role at 34

Thompson's 12 seasons with Golden State ended in the summer of 2024. ESPN reported that he signed with the Dallas Mavericks, choosing them over a richer offer from the Lakers to play next to Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. By then his role had already started to change. ESPN noted that he had moved to the bench midway through the 2023–24 season, when he averaged 17.9 points in 77 games and shot 38.7 percent from three. The season before, his first full year back from injury, he had averaged 22 points on 41 percent three-point shooting.

His size kept him useful through that change. A 6′5″ shooter who can defend wings fits almost any lineup, because he can play alongside a ball-dominant guard without giving up size on defense. In Dallas that meant spacing the floor around Dončić, listed on this site at 203.2 cm (6′8″), and Irving, listed at 188 cm (6′2″). The three gave the Mavericks a backcourt and wing group of three clearly different heights and three distinct roles. NBA.com now lists him with the Miami Heat.

Klay Thompson compared with the average American man

Off the court, 6′5″ is very tall. Against the 68.9-inch (175.0 cm) average for American men aged 20 and over in the CDC's August 2021 to August 2023 survey, Thompson stands about 20.6 cm (8 inches) taller.

The NCD-RisC estimates on this site's United States average height page put men born in the United States around 1996, close to Thompson's 1990 birth, at about 177 cm. Even against that slightly taller cohort figure he is more than 18 cm above the mean. On the height percentile calculator, 196 cm lands well inside the top one percent of American men. That's a reminder that an "average-sized" NBA guard is still exceptionally tall by everyday standards.

To see the gaps described here, put Thompson next to Curry, Durant or his father in the height difference calculator, or browse more players on the celebrities hub.