David Thompson (basketball player)

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Basketball player
David Thompson
David Thompson (left) next to Julius Erving (1976)

Thompson (left) next to Julius Erving , 1976
Player information
Full name David O'Neil Thompson
birthday 13th July 1954 (age 66)
place of birth Shelby , North Carolina , USA
size 193 cm
Weight 88 kg
position Shooting Guard / Small Forward
college North Carolina State University
NBA draft 1975 , 1st pick, Atlanta Hawks
Clubs as active
1975-1982 United StatesUnited States Denver Nuggets ( ABA / NBA )
1982-1984 United StatesUnited States Seattle SuperSonics (NBA)

David O'Neil Thompson (born July 13, 1954 in Shelby , North Carolina ) is a retired American basketball player . Between 1975 and 1984 he was active for the Denver Nuggets in both the NBA and the ABA , and then for the Seattle SuperSonics in the NBA. Because of its jumping ability, it was also called "Skywalker". In 1996, Thompson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame .

Early years and college

Thompson grew up in rural North Carolina . He lived about forty miles from Charlotte with his parents and ten siblings . His father was a priest and both parents cleaned buildings to earn a living. Thompson's passion was basketball, and he soon established himself as one of the top youth players in the United States.

He was considered a great talent when he entered the NCAA college league in 1971 with the North Carolina State University basketball team . He was famous for his jumping ability and could, among other things, pick a coin from the top of the wicker board.

Thompson as a college gamer

Since the slam dunk was banned in the college leagues at the time, he specialized instead in alley-oops , in which he caught high allusions high above the basket in a Kempa trick manner and let them fall through the trap in a controlled manner.

After Thompson had led his team as a sophomore through the regular season without defeat, the "Wolfpack" team from North Carolina surprisingly won the NCAA Division I basketball championship the following year . With Thompson, the Wolfpack won in the semi-finals against the highly-favored UCLA team (seven titles in a row) with Hall of Famer Bill Walton in the second extension, with Thompson scoring the decisive basket.

Although he failed to defend his title in his senior year of college, Thompson had an impressive college career, including three All-American appointments, two awards for best college player of the year and the NCAA title MVP Award.

Professional career

ABA

In the summer of 1975, Thompson made for a novelty, as he was selected in both the NBA and the then competitive ABA league in the first place. He ended up with the ABA's Denver Nuggets and won the Rookie of the Year and All-Star-Game MVP titles straight away. With the Nuggets, Thompson reached the last ABA final in 1976, where he failed at the New York Nets around superstar Julius Erving .

NBA

The Nuggets were one of four teams that were incorporated into the NBA when the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976. Thompson was also successful in the NBA with an average of 25.9 points for the season. Thompson, who smashed the backboard at a dunk over his old competitor Bill Walton, received the most votes in the All-Star election. With the appearance of the first Star Wars film, Thompson, who literally "walked through the air" during his dunking , was nicknamed "Skywalker", based on the Jedi knight Luke .

In 1978 the scoring race between Thompson and George Gervin of the San Antonio Spurs went into league history . Before the last game, Gervin was a fraction of a point ahead of Thompson's point cut. Both the Nuggets and Spurs let their top scorers do their thing, and Thompson scored 73 points (53 in the first half) against the Detroit Pistons . However, Gervin scored 63 points for his part and won the scorer's title by a wafer-thin (27.22 points per game against 27.15).

The Nuggets then negotiated a five-year contract for $ 4 million for Thompson, which made Thompson the highest-paid player in the NBA. However, from that point on, he started making headlines rather than the sport. Substance abuse and injuries shook his basketball career. Although he was able to keep the high level on the field (22 points per game), he became more and more undisciplined and missed training units and team meetings. In 1979 he was able to win the MVP Award of the All-Star Games , making him the only player to ever win the NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award in the NBA and the ABA .

In the years that followed, Thompson continued to deteriorate. After he only made 15 points per game in 1981, he went to a rehab clinic. After moving to the Seattle SuperSonics , he played there two seasons with an average of 12 points per game. While partying in the infamous Studio 54 in New York, he fell down a flight of stairs and smashed his knee, which marked the end of his career.

Thompson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996 and into the ABA All-Time Team in 1997.

statistics

season team Points / Col Rebounds / sp Assists / Sp Steals / Sp Blocks / Sp FW%
1975-76 Denver Nuggets ( ABA ) 26.0 6.3 3.7 1.6 1.2 . 515
1976-77 Denver nuggets 25.9 4.1 4.1 1.4 0.6 . 507
1977-78 Denver nuggets 27.2 4.9 4.5 1.2 1.2 . 521
1978-79 Denver nuggets 24.0 3.6 3.0 0.9 1.1 . 512
1979-80 Denver nuggets 21.5 4.5 3.2 1.0 1.0 . 468
1980-81 Denver nuggets 25.5 3.7 3.0 0.7 0.8 . 506
1981-82 Denver nuggets 14.9 2.4 1.9 0.6 0.5 . 486
1982-83 Seattle SuperSonics 15.9 3.6 3.0 0.6 0.4 . 481
1983-84 Seattle SuperSonics 12.6 2.3 0.7 0.5 0.7 . 539

Web links

Commons : David Thompson  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame :: David Thompson. In: hoophall.com. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Thompson, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thompson, David O'Neil (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American basketball player
DATE OF BIRTH July 13, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Shelby , North Carolina