I'm too young to really remember John Thompson, I was only 4 years old when he resigned from Georgetown. Over the years I heard about him, his relationship with Patrick Ewing and how he played a pivotal role in turning the fledgling Big East into the best conference in College Basketball, along with other iconic coaches like Boeheim, Carnaseca, Massimino, etc.
It was not until I came across a splendid piece of the 10 part documentary on ESPN, Basketball: A Love Story, based on the oral history book that was compiled by Jackie MacMullan and Rafe Bartholomew, and they had a 20-minute segment on Thompson and Georgetown, that I really could appreciate what a special driving force he was in basketball. His success as a coach is overshadowed by the impact he had not only on the lives of his players, but on the game itself. I know people will say that when Coach K dies, or Calipari, or any great coach and it is certainly a cliche, but it feels especially true for Thompson.
Thompson started out as a star player in high school in Washington DC when DC was the basketball capital of the world and the neighborhoods produced a surplus of professional talent. He starred at Providence and then spent two years with the Celtics as Bill Russell's backup, not playing much but absorbing a ton of knowledge. When he ended up the coach at Georgetown he inherited a 3-23 team and quickly turned them into a respectable outlet. By the time the Big East rolled around they were a perennial contender; and Georgetown was a premier program in the 1980s, making the tournament finals three times and winning once, the two losses coming on a one point lost to North Carolina, and an upset by Villanova.
That is all basketball stuff though, what stood out to me with the more I learned about Thompson was his dignity. At 6'10 and 275lbs, he was a towering black man from Washington DC, and while Coach K, Dean Smith or Jim Boeheim might have been better coaches, it is hard to think of a coach who understood his players better. JA Adande mentioned on Twitter today that the Georgetown Starter jacket wasn't a basketball coat, it was a political statement. A decade before the Fab Five got credit for ushering in the inner-city vibe to college basketball, Georgetown pioneered a team built on tough, aggressive play coupled with an inner-city swagger that could not be faked. When I talk to college basketball fans who were around during that era, they almost all talk about how they HATED Georgetown and John Thompson. The playing style was disciplined and ugly, they relied on a 2-3 zone or the 1-3-1 zone, centered around a big man (Ewing, Mutombo, Mourning) in the middle protecting the rim. A team that was built on dominant, predominantly African-American giants playing a physical style of basketball, all led by a giant coach who wasn't afraid to speak his mind to the press or use his size and attitude to intimidate referees, they were a new kind of team to college basketball and they threatened traditionalists.
The bullshit was everywhere. People know about the "Patrick Ewing can't read this" sign, but there are countless incidents. He pulled his team off the floor in 1983 when that sign was held up, but what about the "missing link" banner that unfurled, picture various stages of human evolution with Patrick Ewing placed between apes and man? What about when a Syracuse fan threw an orange onto the court when Ewing attempted a free throw in 1985? Villanova fans holding up a bedsheet that read Ewing is an ape? Thompson is memorialized today as the first black head coach to win the NCAA title, but I can't think about when in a post-game news conference he eviscerated a reporter who asked him what it felt like to be the first black coach to win a championship:
"I am not interested in being the first black to do anything, because that is a very misleading thing. It implies that in 1984, a black man finally became intelligent enough to win the NCAA title, and that is a very misleading thing."
Anyway, there a million great Thompson stories out there and as someone who was not around for his coaching career, I have found him a particularly fascinating character, although I'm sure some older fans may disagree. The 20 minute segment from the documentary can be found on ESPN+, titled "Georgetown Culture: John Thompson's America." I also caught Michael Wilbon on First Take today talking about him and it was really emotional.
View: https://twitter.com/RealMikeWilbon/status/1300451274572341255?s=20
It was not until I came across a splendid piece of the 10 part documentary on ESPN, Basketball: A Love Story, based on the oral history book that was compiled by Jackie MacMullan and Rafe Bartholomew, and they had a 20-minute segment on Thompson and Georgetown, that I really could appreciate what a special driving force he was in basketball. His success as a coach is overshadowed by the impact he had not only on the lives of his players, but on the game itself. I know people will say that when Coach K dies, or Calipari, or any great coach and it is certainly a cliche, but it feels especially true for Thompson.
Thompson started out as a star player in high school in Washington DC when DC was the basketball capital of the world and the neighborhoods produced a surplus of professional talent. He starred at Providence and then spent two years with the Celtics as Bill Russell's backup, not playing much but absorbing a ton of knowledge. When he ended up the coach at Georgetown he inherited a 3-23 team and quickly turned them into a respectable outlet. By the time the Big East rolled around they were a perennial contender; and Georgetown was a premier program in the 1980s, making the tournament finals three times and winning once, the two losses coming on a one point lost to North Carolina, and an upset by Villanova.
That is all basketball stuff though, what stood out to me with the more I learned about Thompson was his dignity. At 6'10 and 275lbs, he was a towering black man from Washington DC, and while Coach K, Dean Smith or Jim Boeheim might have been better coaches, it is hard to think of a coach who understood his players better. JA Adande mentioned on Twitter today that the Georgetown Starter jacket wasn't a basketball coat, it was a political statement. A decade before the Fab Five got credit for ushering in the inner-city vibe to college basketball, Georgetown pioneered a team built on tough, aggressive play coupled with an inner-city swagger that could not be faked. When I talk to college basketball fans who were around during that era, they almost all talk about how they HATED Georgetown and John Thompson. The playing style was disciplined and ugly, they relied on a 2-3 zone or the 1-3-1 zone, centered around a big man (Ewing, Mutombo, Mourning) in the middle protecting the rim. A team that was built on dominant, predominantly African-American giants playing a physical style of basketball, all led by a giant coach who wasn't afraid to speak his mind to the press or use his size and attitude to intimidate referees, they were a new kind of team to college basketball and they threatened traditionalists.
The bullshit was everywhere. People know about the "Patrick Ewing can't read this" sign, but there are countless incidents. He pulled his team off the floor in 1983 when that sign was held up, but what about the "missing link" banner that unfurled, picture various stages of human evolution with Patrick Ewing placed between apes and man? What about when a Syracuse fan threw an orange onto the court when Ewing attempted a free throw in 1985? Villanova fans holding up a bedsheet that read Ewing is an ape? Thompson is memorialized today as the first black head coach to win the NCAA title, but I can't think about when in a post-game news conference he eviscerated a reporter who asked him what it felt like to be the first black coach to win a championship:
"I am not interested in being the first black to do anything, because that is a very misleading thing. It implies that in 1984, a black man finally became intelligent enough to win the NCAA title, and that is a very misleading thing."
Anyway, there a million great Thompson stories out there and as someone who was not around for his coaching career, I have found him a particularly fascinating character, although I'm sure some older fans may disagree. The 20 minute segment from the documentary can be found on ESPN+, titled "Georgetown Culture: John Thompson's America." I also caught Michael Wilbon on First Take today talking about him and it was really emotional.
View: https://twitter.com/RealMikeWilbon/status/1300451274572341255?s=20