After the passing of Georgetown coaching legend John Thompson Jr. on Monday, Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan was asked about him during a press conference.
Donovan knows the late Hoyas coach better than many do, as he has four years of first-hand experience playing against him.
Donovan attended Providence from 1983-1987, four years in which Georgetown dominated the Big East.
In Donovan’s first year at college, Georgetown won the National Championship.
“The Big East back then was really defined by the coaches and those guys being such great figureheads and certainly Coach Thompson was that,” Donovan said.
Thompson died Monday at age 78, his family announced.
In 1984, Thompson became the first Black head coach to lead a team to a National Championship.
He coached future Hall of Famers including Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allen Iverson.
Over his 27-year Georgetown career, Thompson’s team went 596-239, appeared in three Final Fours and only had two losing seasons.
“I had a chance to obviously play against him as a player and then certainly coach against him, just one time, but he was an iconic figure,” Donovan said.
“I got a chance to know him some and I got a chance to know John III well. Just class act, great people. And I think both of them, especially the dad, really moved college basketball in a lot of ways to incredible heights.”
Thompson is remembered as much for his off-the-court decisions than he is for the ones on the basketball court.
In 1989, he boycotted two games in protest of the NCAA’s Proposition 42 that would deny scholarships to students who scored less than a 700 on the SAT or 15 on the ACT and have below a 2.0 GPA in high school, according to the Washington Post.
“If these kids today don’t get that opportunity [at an education], who are they going to look to? Those people lingering at [outside the store]? I had to reassure myself I was doing the right thing … I’m sure now I’m right,” Thompson said to the outlet at the time.
He stood up for racial issues. As CBS’ Gary Parrish wrote:
“He sparked dreams and created opportunities for black coaches — first for Nolan Richardson and John Chaney, then for Leonard Hamilton and Shaka Smart and Anthony Grant. The list of black coaches who got jobs because of Thompson, who are wealthy because of Thompson, still isn’t long enough — but it is long.”
There are also stories of how he helped his players, from confronting drug dealer Rayful Edmond III when the dealer was around his athletes to helping 76 of the 78 athletes who played under Thompson for four seasons get degrees.
Allen Iverson, in his Hall of Fame ceremony and again on Instagram on Monday, credited Thompson with saving his life.
“The things that you look at that he was part of, the things he did away from basketball were, I think, incredible for the growth of our country and the growth of our game,” Donovan said.
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