John Thompson, an esteemed Georgetown University basketball coach and the first Black head coach to win the NCAA national championship, has died at 78 years old, the university announced Monday. And while his personal record in athletics as a two-time champion playing for the Boston Celtics is more than enough to earn him due praise, it’s his personal investment in his players and their 97% graduation rate that have humbled those even outside of the world of sports.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris called Thompson "a legend and a leader both on and off the court, paving the way for so many who came after him." "My condolences are with his family, loved ones, and the entire Hoyas community," she tweeted Monday.
Former student of Thompson’s and NBA Hall of Famer Allen Iverson thanked the role model in an emotional Hall of Fame acceptance speech in 2016, and again after learning of his death Monday. “Thanks For Saving My Life Coach,” he said in a tweet. “I’m going to miss you, but I’m sure that you are looking down on us with a big smile. I would give anything just for one more phone call from you only to hear you say, ‘Hey MF’, then we would talk about everything except basketball.......”
”....May you always Rest in Paradise, where there is no pain or suffering. I will always see your face in my mind, hoping that I made you proud. ‘Your Prodigal Son’. #Hoya4Life,” Iverson added.
As a promising athlete in high school, Iverson was convicted of three felony counts for a chair-throwing, racially motivated brawl at a bowling alley in 1993. And while many point to a racial epithet as the underlying cause of the fight, it nonetheless ground Iverson’s multiple recruitment prospects from colleges across the country to a halt, according to the Daily Press in Iverson’s home state of Virginia.
“I was recruited by every school in the country for football and basketball, and uh an incident happened in high school, and all that was taken away. No other teams, no other schools were recruiting me anymore,” Iverson said, his voice cracking speaking of Thompson. “My mom went to Georgetown and begged him to give me a chance and he did.”
Thompson defended Iverson, a magnet for racist criticism, even as he made his transition into professional sports. In one ESPN interview in which Thompson was asked about the people Iverson kept around him, the coach responded:
"A lot of aspects of society he was not permitted to enter into. We still now are fighting to make certain that if a young man goes to most of the major universities in the United States, that they'll employ them as something other than a coach. It used to be something other than a player. Now we are arguing and debating, the National Coaches Association, which happens to be white and black, came out and protested about two or three weeks ago that the kids who participate in the NCAA can get jobs who are of color. Now, why would Allen Iverson not have a posse? They love him, they're around him, they're comfortable with him, they include him. He doesn't have to score 40 points to be included into their world. So, people amaze me when they say, ‘Why did he hang with this person?’ He hangs with them because those are the people who saved his life, those are the people that walked with him before he scored 40."
Slate magazine writer Joel Anderson said in a tweet: “If John Thompson only ever made this one public utterance, it would have been enough to make him a legend. You only wish every student or athlete was fortunate enough to learn from someone who didn’t think of them as a product of pathologies.”
The Ringer writer Tyler Tynes said Thompson was the "first black coach a lot of us ever saw.” He coached NBA Hall of Famers Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, and Dikembe Mutombo.
Ewing, who's the current head coach of the Georgetown Hoyas, said in a statement that Thompson "changed the world and helped shape the way we see it." “Georgetown University, the sport of basketball and the world has lost someone who I consider to be a father figure, confidant and role model. We will all miss you, Coach Thompson - but we will never forget you,” Ewing tweeted Monday.
Several basketball greats from Mutombo to Michael Jordan shared statements of what Thompson’s life meant to them. “Very sad news to wake up to on this cloudy morning. Our legendary Georgetown coach, John Thompson has passed away. He was my mentor, great teacher, hero and a father figure to so many us who got the chance to play…” Mutombo tweeted.
Jordan said in a media statement that he “admired” Thompson and “loved him dearly.” “Coach Thompson was truly a great man and a legend in college basketball. He had such a profound impact on his players and was a father figure to so many of them,” Jordan said.
