These days, Mychal Thompson is perhaps best known as the father of Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson and the loquacious color commentator for radio broadcasts of Los Angeles Lakers games.
But back in the day, he was a pretty good player himself for the Purple and Gold.
During the 1986-87 season, with legendary center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar starting to significantly show his age, L.A. traded for Thompson to beef up its frontcourt.
It won the NBA championship that year, its fourth in eight seasons, and head coach Pat Riley, looking to establish his squad as the team of the 1980s, guaranteed it would repeat as champs.
As the 1988 NBA Playoffs opened, the Lakers looked a bit vulnerable, and they needed more than the usual great games from Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Byron Scott to fulfill Riley’s promise.
In Game 2 of the first round versus the San Antonio Spurs, Thompson had perhaps his best game as a Laker with 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting and 16 rebounds to help his team to a 130-112 win.
With Thompson spelling a rapidly declining Abdul-Jabbar, while also helping out a young A.C. Green at power forward, the Lakers took out the Spurs in a three-game sweep and went on to claim another world championship.
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