How Klay Thompson to Miami Parallels Other Hall of Famers

Klay Thompson is no stranger to winning NBA championships. The former "Splash Brother" has four rings on his resume, all of which he won as a member of the Golden State Warriors.

With news of his buyout from the Dallas Mavericks on Friday and his reported signing with the Miami Heat (he cannot sign the two-year deal Miami offered until Sunday, August 23rd, after 5 p.m. EST), it is time to compare Klay's move to Miami to those of several other NBA Hall of Famers who joined the Heat late in their careers and were able to win championships.

Klay signing with Miami in his 15th season as an NBA player (he’s only played 13 of those seasons after missing two due to knee and Achilles injuries) follows the path of Hall-of-Fame players like Ray Allen, Alonzo Mourning, and Gary Payton.

All three signed with Miami late in their careers and finished their NBA journeys there after winning championships.

Ray Allen joined Miami as a free agent in 2012 after five years with the Boston Celtics (and previous stints with the Bucks and Seattle Supersonics). Allen, who won a ring in 2008 with Boston's "Big Three," won his second NBA title with Miami in 2013.

He played through the 2014 season before retiring. Meanwhile, Mourning and Payton each won their sole rings as members of the 2006 Miami Heat championship team. Both Mourning and Payton signed with the team in 2005—Mourning in his second stint after signing with the then-New Jersey Nets as a free agent in 2003—and finished their careers following that 2006 victory; Payton retired after the 2006 season, while Mourning continued playing until 2009.

Late career Hall of Famers such as Ray Allen, Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton have won titles in reduced but important roles with the Miami Heat.

We will see if Klay Thompson can do the same.
— Five Reasons Sports 🏀🏈⚾️🏒⚽️ (@5ReasonsSports) August 21, 2026

All three players had been in the league for more than 10 years before coming to Miami and winning. Each played fewer minutes on those championship teams but remained vital role players despite the reduced workload. Payton joined the team as a backup to Jason Williams and averaged just over 24 minutes per game during the 2006 Playoffs.

Alonzo Mourning, who returned to the team following a kidney transplant, stepped in as a backup center to Shaquille O'Neal. And then there is *that* shot heard around the world on the HEAT's road to winning the ring in 2013.. "Rebound Bosh, back out to Allen, his three-pointer — BANG!" as Mike Breen so appropriately called it live.

The Heat wouldn't have won Game 6 in 2013, and inevitably the championship, without that moment from Ray Allen, who served as a bench shooter backing up the "Big Three." Now, with the acquisition of Klay Thompson, a proven winner, could history repeat itself to put Miami back in the winner's circle and provide another storybook final chapter to another historical career?

Pairing Thompson, a future Hall of Famer and one of the league's greatest perimeter shooters, with newly acquired Giannis Antetokounmpo?

Bam Adebayo, and the rest of this Miami HEAT roster sounds promising—especially in an Eastern Conference that appears to be up for grabs between the new-look Philadelphia 76ers and the reigning champion New York Knicks.

While the comparisons seem too evident to ignore, Thompson himself had thoughts on being compared to Ray Allen. On social media Thursday, the former Dallas Mavericks sharpshooter made his feelings known in response to a post debating whether he or Ray Allen was the "better all-time player."

Fans were discussing scoring numbers and "who they'd take" when Thompson chimed in. He commented that their scoring numbers were a reflection of the quality of their teams. "You do realize I was the second-leading scorer on two championship teams without [Kevin Durant]? You want me to go to a bad team and put up empty stats, that's easy buddy," he commented. (For what it's worth, he trailed only Steph Curry's numbers when he was refernecing the "second-leading scorer" status).

Whatever Klay thinks of comparing his own shooting numbers to those of Ray Allen, the trajectory of their careers cannot be disputed: both ending in Miami and potentially both resulting in championships (or perhaps two, if the Klay-Giannis-Bam core works out as expected). Thompson has fared well in this league when paired with other All-Stars (we know what he did with those stacked Warriors teams), and the Miami HEAT roster he is joining is nothing shy of All-Star level talent.

We will see if history repeats itself for Thompson in the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons, just as it did for his predecessors in 2006 and 2013.

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