Klay Thompson to end sparkling Warriors career and join Mavericks on $50m contract

Klay Thompson will end a career with the Golden State Warriors that brought him a shower of NBA titles and All-Star appearances to join the Dallas Mavericks, according to reports.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Monday that Thompson will sign a three-year, $50m contract with the Mavericks, who reached last month’s NBA finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics. Thompson, who played for the Warriors for 13 seasons after they drafted him No 11 overall in 2011, reportedly turned down more lucrative offers from other teams as he wanted to join a title contender. The Associated Press reported that the deal will be executed as a sign-and-trade involving the Warriors, Mavericks and Charlotte Hornets. Mavericks guard Josh Green is understood to be moving to Charlotte as part of the deal.

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The 34-year-old won four NBA titles with the Warriors and was an All-Star on five occasions. He also formed the greatest backcourt shooting duo of all time with Stephen Curry. Thompson shot 41.3% from three-point range over his Warriors career, and he is sixth on the all-time list for made threes. He missed the entire 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons through injury but helped the Warriors to the title when he returned in 2021-22.

While he is far from the player he was at his peak, he played in 77 of the Warriors’ 82 regular season games in 2023-24, the most he had appeared in since 2016-17. However, last season was the first time he had come off the bench since his rookie season and he shot 38.7% from three-point range, the second-worst rate of his career.

In Dallas he will team up with Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, who he played against in several NBA finals when Irving was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Elsewhere, the Boston Celtics and All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum are finalizing a five-year supermax extension worth $314 million, which would be the largest deal in NBA history, according to ESPN. The deal comes after Tatum helped guide the Celtics to the NBA title this summer, the 18th in franchise history.