For a moment today, everyone should also reflect on the role Ewing played in Thompson’s life and legacy. His decision to attend Georgetown in 1981 changed everything. Ewing delivered Thompson the platform to reach the masses in a way that inspired and challenged and forced all kinds of people to consider — and reconsider — how inequality was rooted in the fabric of the American experiment. Now, Ewing is Georgetown’s coach, a most worthy of heirs to a seat Thompson made one of the most influential in sports. “I wouldn’t be here without John Thompson,” Williams, a Notre Dame graduate, said on Monday morning. “He was a hero for us. We had our parents, and we had Len Bias, and Len died. And then we had John Thompson.