By Joe Vardon | The Athletic, 2026-02-11 10:00:11
克莱·汤普森 (Klay Thompson) 在俄勒冈州波特兰郊区长大的房子是一座占地宽阔的红砖大宅，有一扇橡木正门和一条长长的走道，穿过高耸且修剪整齐的树木和茂密的草坪，经过石砌楼梯通往里弗伍德路。
这座房子建于1925年，在一个世纪中经过了无数次翻修，拥有硬木地板、主卧套房内的壁炉、带木制天花板的露天后门廊，以及地下室的酒窖。后院看起来像是《唐顿庄园》里的场景，喷泉周围点缀着修剪得完美无瑕的灌木丛。
从街道出发，穿过这座5600平方英尺的豪宅，绕过那些精致的灌木，一条铺好的车道环绕着整个庄园，延伸到车库旁的一个私人尽头路。就在那条路的边缘，悬挂在车道上方的是这个家庭的篮球架。就在那里，家长迈克尔·汤普森 (Mychal Thompson)——这位前波特兰开拓者和洛杉矶湖人的中锋，回忆起看着他当时8岁的儿子克莱一次次从胸口位置把球推射出去，球球空心入网。
老汤普森12年的NBA生涯已经结束，他能看出来，那个投篮唰唰进球的男孩总有一天会在联盟中继承他的衣钵。
“你知道小孩子是怎么投篮的，但他的球总能进，”迈克尔告诉《The Athletic》，“我跟他妈妈说，这孩子投篮的方式非同一般，凭这手投篮，他将来能进名人堂。”
迈克尔身高6英尺10英寸，体重225磅，是一名在篮下背身作战的中锋。但他曾在湖人队与拜伦·斯科特 (Byron Scott) 搭档，在开拓者队与特里·波特 (Terry Porter) 和克莱德·德雷克斯勒 (Clyde Drexler) 做过队友。他很清楚顶级的投射能力是什么样的。
迈克尔作为父亲的直觉，在NBA赛场和训练馆多年沉淀的经验加持下，被证明是正确的。克莱长到了6英尺5英寸，逐渐将出手点从胸口提高到了前额，并成为了历史上最伟大的射手之一。
自2011年圣诞节在金州勇士完成首秀以来，汤普森已经投进了2836个三分球，在NBA历史上排名第四，仅次于斯蒂芬·库里 (Stephen Curry)、詹姆斯·哈登 (James Harden) 和雷·阿伦 (Ray Allen)。作为五届全明星和四届总冠军得主，汤普森与库里一起共同谱写了NBA的三分球革命，这也为他们赢得了共同的绰号——“水花兄弟”。
在一次简短的采访中，汤普森告诉《The Athletic》，是他的父亲教他如何投篮的。无论是小时候力气太小无法从头顶出手，还是随着年龄增长步入青少年和成年期，汤普森都被教导要从篮下开始训练，然后逐渐后撤，并在每次投篮时保持手肘内收。
与此同时，迈克尔坚持认为他的儿子是自学成才。克莱成为了如此伟大的射手，而在命中三分球这件事上，他无疑处于极少数的顶尖行列。
但克莱的父亲在NBA球员中也属于一个“极少数”群体。
作为联盟历史上最大的讽刺之一，迈克尔，这位史上最伟大三分射手之一的父亲，是自1979年10月联盟设立三分线以来，屈指可数的几位至少打过一个完整NBA赛季却仅投进过一个三分球的球员之一。
“我们的球风如此对立，这真的挺酷的，”汤普森说。
沙奎尔·奥尼尔可以说是NBA历史上最具统治力的力量。他履历中最奇怪的一项？他在1996年2月16日投进的职业生涯唯一一个三分球。（Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images）
总的来说，这是一个令人印象深刻的名单。卡里姆·阿布杜尔-贾巴尔 (Kareem Adbul-Jabbar) 在其中。沙奎尔·奥尼尔 (Shaquille O’Neal) 也在。还有乔·乔·怀特 (Jo Jo White)、阿蒂斯·吉尔摩 (Artis Gilmore)、戴夫·考恩斯 (Dave Cowens) 和斯潘塞·海伍德 (Spencer Haywood)。他们全都入选了奈史密斯篮球名人堂。
此外，还有数十名像迈克尔以及吉姆·布鲁尔 (Jim Brewer)、卡洛斯·布泽尔 (Carlos Boozer)、大卫·李 (David Lee) 和安德森·瓦莱乔 (Anderson Varejão) 这样已经退役的球员。
截至今天，在三分线设立以来约4500名进入过联盟的球员中，有119名球员在出场至少82场比赛的情况下，职业生涯恰好命中了一个三分球。
本周末NBA全明星休赛期即将到来，期间周六晚上将举行年度三分球大赛——如果可以的话，称之为三分球的庆典——目前联盟中有五位现役球员出场至少82场且仅投进过一个三分球：史蒂文·亚当斯 (Steven Adams)、伊维察·祖巴茨 (Ivica Zubac)、马克·威廉姆斯 (Mark Williams)、尼克·理查兹 (Nick Richards) 和特雷斯·杰克逊-戴维斯 (Trayce Jackson-Davis)。
目前的这份“一球俱乐部”名单有几个奇妙的巧合。首先，其中三人在上周被交易了：祖巴茨从洛杉矶快船转会至印第安纳步行者；理查兹从菲尼克斯太阳转会至芝加哥公牛；杰克逊-戴维斯则从勇士转会至多伦多猛龙。
1月19日，在勇士大胜迈阿密热火的比赛中，杰克逊-戴维斯在职业生涯的第161场比赛中命中了第一个三分球，从而加入了这个专属俱乐部。在比赛还剩0.7秒且勇士领先20分的情况下，杰克逊-戴维斯在48英尺外起手，球打板入筐。
库里在替补席上目睹了球进，他穿着热身服，头上顶着毛巾，陷入了震惊的沉默。巴迪·希尔德 (Buddy Hield) 双手抱头站在场上，表情显然在说：“兄弟，这种球你可不能随便投啊。”
但如果你在这个名单上，你的故事大概率都很相似。也许你的那一记长投不像杰克逊-戴维斯那样属于“球场禁忌”（领先20分剩一秒，别投篮），但能在大联盟生存82场或更多比赛却只进一个三分，说明你是靠不同的技能包生存下来的，比如护筐者、篮板手或攻筐型内线。那记三分可能来自某节结束时的压哨球。或者，是在一场大屠杀般的比赛早期获得的空位机会。
“并不是因为我投不了；而是那时候我们不被允许投，”迈克尔说，他是1978年的新秀，在1986年12月29日投进了他职业生涯唯一的三分球。“如果那时他们允许我投，我肯定能投进，但当时没有中锋或大个子投三分。大个子被告知要留在油漆区，我打球那会儿根本没有‘空间型四号位或五号位’这种说法。”
迈克尔现在是湖人队的电视评论员，他记得他进的那个球是一个节末压哨球，出手位置就在中场线内一点。当时他效力于圣安东尼奥马刺，在萨克拉门托投出了那记如有神助的祈祷球。
但迈克尔以及这份名单上的大多数球员，都身处一个三分球整体上还属于“特长生项目”的时代——对于大个子来说，更是压根没考虑过。直到迈克尔的儿子，以及库里、哈登和雷·阿伦等人，通过历史级频率的三分投射改变了整个运动，促使教练和管理层重新思考比赛策略、阵容构建，以及最终——谁应该去投三分球。
2015-16赛季的“库汤”勇士创造了当时NBA的三分球命中纪录（后来被打破）。汤普森曾单节砍下37分并投进创联盟纪录的9个三分——这意味着他在12分钟的比赛时间内，就将他父亲职业生涯的三分命中数翻了九倍。
如今，全联盟30支球队中有28支的场均三分出手次数超过了那支勇士队（31.6次）。在现代篮球中，大多数球员只要有空位，无论什么位置，都应该出手三分。除非，他们基本上就在这份名单上。
于是，这些人的三分球基本上仅限于全场或三分之二场射程的远程炸弹，就像史蒂文·亚当斯在2020年2月13日为俄克拉荷马城雷霆投进的那球。在对阵新奥尔良鹈鹕的上半场结束前，他从中场单手将球甩出。当球应声入网时，亚当斯这位体格魁梧、满身纹身的新西兰人，像库里一样抖肩庆祝。
“那就像是一个棒球式的长传，然后我看到球划出的轨迹，心想：‘嘿，这球真直，’”亚当斯回忆道，“球进了，我完全惊呆了。所以显然，你必须为你进的第一个NBA三分球大肆庆祝一番，伙计。”
亚当斯现在是休斯顿火箭的中锋，他说自己从未有过投更多三分的冲动，而他在其他球队的同行们作为中锋已经自学了远程投射。身高6英尺11英寸的亚当斯在12个赛季中三分球17投1中。他说自己如果在10次尝试中大概能投进两三个，但这10次出手会抢走那些更有把握命中的队友的机会。
2020年2月13日，史蒂文·亚当斯在命中职业生涯唯一的三分球后庆祝。（Layne Murdoch Jr. / Getty Images）
“我的大部分工作都在禁区肉搏，伙计，”亚当斯说，“你最好去你能产生（该死的）影响力的地方。我开辟了自己的生存空间，而NBA的运行规律是存在趋势的，所以现在的情况是，数据分析支持了我的打法。它让那些数据专家和类似的人看到了我的价值。结果不错，但老实说，我的整个哲学一直没变。”
祖巴茨唯一的那个三分也是一个稀奇的进球，但不是中场随手一抛。那是2020-21赛季的倒数第二场比赛，当时效力于快船的祖巴茨正努力打满全季72场比赛（该赛季因新冠疫情缩短了10场）。教练泰伦·卢 (Tyronn Lue) 决定让他上场几分钟然后换下，并想专门跑个战术，让当时职业生涯0投9中的祖巴茨能有机会打破他的“零突破”。
果不其然，祖巴茨设下掩护后弹回到弧顶。火箭队的球员根本没费心追出去——为什么要追呢？——于是祖巴茨稳稳命中了一个大空位三分。
“我一直能投篮。只是在NBA，我更专注于其他事情，比如篮板、防守和低位得分，”祖巴茨说，“这绝对是我觉得我能做到的事情。只是我需要花点时间刻苦训练，可能是一个夏天之类的，搞清楚哪里能得到那些机会，怎么得到机会？并在投篮时保持自信。”
祖巴茨在快船客场更衣室接受《The Athletic》采访时说了这番话，大约两个月后他被交易到了步行者。他指了指坐在房间对面凳子上的队友布鲁克·洛佩斯 (Brook Lopez)。洛佩斯或许是三分型中锋的“守护神”，因为他在职业生涯的前六个赛季没进过三分，前八个赛季也只进了三个，但截至2月1日，他已经投进了1136个三分——在中锋史上排名第二。
“我非常喜欢联盟现在的走向。几乎每个人都在投射了，”祖巴茨说，“我觉得这是我能在联盟长期立足的方式之一。”
当《The Athletic》开始为这篇报道进行采访时，太阳队的马克·威廉姆斯并不在这份名单上（杰克逊-戴维斯当时也不在）。威廉姆斯职业生涯首记三分球出现在12月8日对阵明尼苏达森林狼的一场3分险胜中。截至2月1日，这是威廉姆斯本赛季唯一的一次三分尝试，也是他四年职业生涯中的第五次。
“我就是投了。当时并不是快到24秒了或是什么。我当时感觉很有节奏。在底角接到球，顺其自然就出手了，”威廉姆斯说。当被告知他在这份特定的名单上时，他在队友面前打趣道：“希望能尽快摆脱这个标准。”
这正是夏洛特的穆萨·迪亚巴特 (Moussa Diabaté) 本赛季所做的。当《The Athletic》10月份开始构思这个故事时，他还在名单上，并希望能通过在夏洛特的轮换阵容中争得一席之地留在联盟。他不仅做到了这一点，还成为了这支充满惊喜、势头强劲的黄蜂队的首发中锋。在12月的一次采访中，迪亚巴特表示目前投三分不是“我的角色”，他的任务是从替补席出发积极拼抢和防守。
但在1月28日战胜孟菲斯的比赛中，迪亚巴特全场9投8中，砍下赛季新高的18分，他出手并命中了本赛季唯一的一个三分。
“随着时间的推移，所有人都会看到我能投这些球，”迪亚巴特预言道。
迈克尔·汤普森从未得到那样的机会。但他的儿子，在经过车道上无数次的练习后，抓住了属于他的机会，开启了NBA的一场革命。
*——《The Athletic》记者 Doug Haller 和 Christian Clark 对本文亦有贡献。 *
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
点击查看原文：NBA Hall of Famers. A Splash Father. Inside the single 3-pointer club
NBA Hall of Famers. A Splash Father. Inside the single 3-pointer club
The house where Klay Thompson grew up in suburban Portland, Ore., is a sprawling, red-brick estate with an oak front door and a long walkway that stretched past tall, tightly trimmed trees and plush grass, through a stone-cased stairway onto Riverwood Road.
Built in 1925 and renovated countless times over the century, the house has hardwood floors, a fireplace in the master suite, an open-air back porch with a wood ceiling and a wine cellar in the basement. The backyard looks like something out of “Downton Abbey,” with immaculate, manicured shrubbery that surrounds a water fountain.
Encasing the entire property, from the street, past the 5,600 square-foot mansion and around those nice bushes, is a paved driveway that spills into a private cul-de-sac next to the garage. At the edge of that cul-de-sac, hanging over the drive, was the family basketball hoop. That’s where patriarch Mychal Thompson, the former Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers center, remembered watching his then-8-year-old son, Klay, hoisting shot after shot from the center of his chest, splashing each one through the net.
The elder Thompson’s 12-year NBA career was over, and he could tell the boy swishing those shots was going to succeed him in the league one day.
“You know how little kids shoot the ball, but his would always go in,” Mychal told The Athletic. “I told his mother, the way this kid can shoot the ball, he could be a Hall of Famer with that shot.”
Mychal was a 6-10, 225-pound center who played near the rim, his back facing the basket. But he was teammates with Byron Scott on the Lakers and Terry Porter and Clyde Drexler on the Blazers. He knew what great outside shooting looked like.
Mychal’s fatherly intuition, influenced by all those years in NBA arenas and practice gyms, proved correct. Klay sprouted to 6-5, gradually raised his release point from chest to forehead, and became one of the greatest shooters in history.
Since Christmas Day 2011, when Klay debuted for the Golden State Warriors, he’s made 2,836 3-pointers, fourth-most in NBA history behind only Stephen Curry, James Harden and Ray Allen. A five-time All-Star and four-time champion, Klay was a co-author of the NBA’s 3-point revolution along with Curry, which earned them the shared nickname “Splash Brothers.”
In a brief interview, Klay told The Athletic it was his dad who taught him how to shoot. Whether he was young and too small to shoot from over his head, or as he matured into a teenager and young adult, Klay was taught to start his workouts under the basket and gradually step back, keeping his elbows in with each shot.
Mychal, meanwhile, insists his son learned all on his own. Klay came to be such a great shooter, and he is unarguably in the rarest of company when it comes to knocking down 3s.
But Klay’s dad is also in exclusive company among NBA players.
Representing one of the greatest ironies in league history, Mychal Thompson, father of one of the greatest 3-point shooters ever, is one of a handful of players to have played at least one full NBA season and made only one 3 since the league instituted the 3-point line in October 1979.
“It’s pretty cool how opposite our games are,” Klay said.
Shaquille O’Neal was arguably the most dominant force the NBA has ever seen. The oddest item on his resume? A single 3-pointer, which he made on Feb. 16, 1996. (Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)
Overall, it’s an impressive list. Kareem Adbul-Jabbar is on it. Shaquille O’Neal. Jo Jo White. Artis Gilmore. Dave Cowens. Spencer Haywood. All in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
There are dozens of other retired players, like Thompson and Jim Brewer, Carlos Boozer, David Lee and Anderson Varejão.
As of today, 119 NBA players made exactly one 3-pointer with at least 82 games under their belts out of approximately 4,500 who’ve been in the league since the 3-point line was installed.
Heading into the NBA All-Star break this weekend, during which the annual 3-point contest will take place Saturday night — a celebration of 3s, if you will — there are five active players who have appeared in at least 82 games and made exactly one 3-pointer: Steven Adams, Ivica Zubac, Mark Williams, Nick Richards and Trayce Jackson-Davis.
There are a couple of weird asides with the current list of “one 3-pointers.” For starters, three of them were traded last week: Zubac from the LA Clippers to the Indiana Pacers; Richards from the Phoenix Suns to the Chicago Bulls; and Jackson-Davis from the Warriors to the Toronto Raptors.
Jackson-Davis joined this exclusive club by connecting on his first 3-pointer in 161 career games on Jan. 19 in a Warriors blowout win over the Miami Heat. With 0.7 seconds left and the Warriors up 20, Jackson-Davis unleashed a 48-footer and banked it in.
Curry watched it go in from the bench, his warmups on and a towel over his head, in stunned silence. Buddy Hield had his hands on the back of his skull, standing on the court with the obvious expression of, “Bro, you just don’t do that sort of thing.”
But if you are on the list, chances are, your story is similar. Perhaps your single long shot wasn’t an NBA faux pas, like Jackson-Davis’ was (up 20 with a second left, don’t shoot), but to last in the league for 82 or more games and make only one 3 is to survive through a different skill set, as a shot blocker or rebounder or rim runner. A 3 may have come on a buzzer-beater at the end of a quarter. Or, a player was wide open earlier in a blowout.
“It wasn’t because I couldn’t shoot them; it’s that we weren’t allowed back then,” said Mychal, a rookie in 1978 who made his lone 3-pointer on Dec. 29, 1986. “I could have made them if they allowed me to shoot them back then, but no centers or big guys were shooting 3s. Big guys were told to stay in the paint, and there was no such thing as stretch fours or fives back when I played.”
Thompson, now a TV analyst for the Lakers, remembers the shot he made as a buzzer-beater to end a period, from just inside of half court. He was playing for the San Antonio Spurs, and the answered prayer he heaved was in Sacramento.
But Thompson, and most of the players on this list, played in a different era when 3s were a specialty overall — and for big men, an afterthought. It wasn’t until Thompson’s son, as well as Curry and Harden and Allen, changed the whole sport by launching 3s at a historic rate, leading coaches and front-office executives to rethink in-game strategies, roster building and, ultimately, who should be shooting 3s.
The Curry-Thompson Warriors of 2015-16 set an NBA record for 3s made (which has since been broken). Thompson once scored 37 points on a league-record nine 3s in that quarter — which means he once multiplied his dad’s career 3-pointers by nine in the span of 12 game minutes.
Today, 28 of 30 teams in the league average more 3-point attempts per game than those Warriors shot (31.6). In the modern game, most players who are open, regardless of position, should take the 3. Unless, basically, they’re on this list.
Then, the 3s are basically limited to the end-of-court/three-quarter-court bombs, like the one Steven Adams made for the Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 13, 2020. He heaved it, one-handed, from half court at the end of the first half against the New Orleans Pelicans. And when the shot fell, Adams, that hulking, tattooed New Zealander, shimmied like Curry.
“It was like a baseball pass, and then I saw it and thought, ‘Man, that’s really straight,’” Adams remembered. “It went, and I was absolutely shocked. So obviously, you definitely need to celebrate on your first 3 you’ve made in the NBA, mate.”
Adams, now the Houston Rockets’ center, said he’s never felt the urge to shoot more 3s, while his counterparts on other teams have taught themselves to shoot from long range as centers. Adams, who is 6-11, is 1-for-17 from 3-point range in 12 seasons. He said he could probably connect on two or three a game out of 10 attempts, but those are 10 shots he’d be taking away from teammates with a better chance to make them.
Steven Adams celebrates after hitting the lone made 3-pointer of his career on Feb. 13, 2020. (Layne Murdoch Jr. / Getty Images)
“A lot of my stuff is in the trenches, man,” Adams said. “You’re better off going where you make (expletive) impact. I carved out a bit of a niche, and then the NBA works in trends, so right now it’s like, the analytics have backed up what I do. It’s put more value for the nerds and (expletive). It’s worked out well, but honestly, my whole philosophy has always been the same.”
Zubac’s lone 3 was also a novelty shot, but not a half-court heave. It was the penultimate game of the 2020-21 season, and the then-Clippers’ center was trying to play in all 72 contests (the campaign was shortened by 10 games because of COVID-19). Coach Tyronn Lue decided to play him for a few minutes and then pull him, and he wanted to run a play so that Zubac, 0-for-9 in his career to that point, could get a look at breaking his glass ceiling.
Sure enough, Zubac set a screen and popped back toward the top of the key. The Rockets didn’t bother to chase him out there — why would they? — and Zubac canned a wide-open 3-ball.
“I could always shoot. It’s just, in the NBA, I’m more focused on other stuff like rebounding, defending and scoring in the post,” Zubac said. “It’s definitely something I feel like I can do. It’s just, like, I gotta really work on it hard for a little bit, for maybe a whole summer or whatever, and figure out where I can get those shots, how can I get them? And just be confident when I shoot them.”
Zubac was speaking to The Athletic inside the Clippers’ locker room on the road, about two months before he was traded to Indiana. He pointed toward teammate Brook Lopez, who was seated on a stool across the room. Lopez is perhaps the patron saint of 3-point shooting centers, because he made no 3s in his first six seasons and just three of them through the first eight, only to go on to make 1,136 through Feb. 1 — second-most of all time by a center.
“I definitely like the way the league is going. Pretty much everyone’s shooting now,” Zubac said. “I feel like that’s one of the ways that I can stay in the league for a long period of time.”
Mark Williams of the Suns wasn’t on this list when The Athletic began reporting for this story (neither was Jackson-Davis, for that matter). Williams’ first career 3-pointer came on Dec. 8 in a three-point win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. As of Feb. 1, it was Williams’ only 3-point try this season and the fifth of his four-year career.
“I just shot it. It wasn’t late in the clock or anything. I was just in rhythm. Caught it in the corner, just let it flow,” said Williams, who, when told he was on this specific list, quipped in front of teammates: “Hopefully, I get out of that criteria soon.”
Which is precisely what Charlotte’s Moussa Diabaté did this season. He was on the list when The Athletic began work on this story in October and was hoping to stay in the league by playing his way into Charlotte’s rotation. Not only did he do that, but he’s become the starting center for a surging, surprising Hornets team. In a December interview, Diabaté said it wasn’t “my role” to shoot 3s for now, but rather to make the hustle plays and defend off the Hornets’ bench.
But in a 112-97 win at Memphis on Jan. 28, a game in which Diabaté was 8-for-9 from the field and finished with a season-high 18 points, he took and drained his only 3 of the season.
“As time goes on, everybody will see I can shoot them,” Diabaté predicted.
Mychal Thompson never got that chance. But his son, after all that practice in the driveway, took the chance he had and started an NBA revolution.
**— The Athletic’s Doug Haller and Christian Clark contributed.
By Joe Vardon, via The Athletic