In any other year early-April would be a time for reflecting on the Elite 8 and looking forward to the Final 4, but this year is not like any other year. Instead, we will spend the week reflecting on champions of the past, from a famous coach who won the 1947 NCAA title as a player to a Hall of Famer who led her team to a perfect 34-0 season in 1986. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our 8-part series with Marshall Terrill, co-author of “Skywalker: The Remarkable and Inspiring Story of Legendary Basketball Player David Thompson”, about David winning the 1974 NCAA title and scoring 73 PTS on the final day of the 1978 NBA regular season.
How did the book come about, and what was Thompson like as a person? My co-author Sean Stormes and I talked about doing a book project together after we became friendly with each other when I interviewed him for “Maravich,” a book I did on “Pistol” Pete Maravich with Wayne Federman. Thompson was a god back in our day but people now have lost sight of how good he actually was: we wanted the younger generation to get a better appreciation of him. We were surprised that he had never written an autobiography so we approached his agent with our idea for a book. After some back and forth with his agent we struck a deal.
How did you find David, and what kind of person is he? I found him to be a shy/quiet guy, which is completely the opposite of most star athletes. I was shocked at how unassuming he was. He certainly had a memory for details and gave us plenty of material while being brutally honest, which always makes for a great book. He has never been afraid to share that with people and many life lessons can be learned from his story. For many years David was down on himself about how he short-circuited his career but the best blessing is that he has forgiven himself. He is older/wiser and has now moved on to other things in his life so his story ends on a winning note.
Did you ever have a chance to visit his original home? Yes, it was a priority of mine and Sean’s, so one day during our taping sessions we took an hour-long drive from Charlotte to Boiling Springs (where David is from). We actually went inside David’s childhood home because it was abandoned. A neighbor pointed it out to us and we just let ourselves in! It was a ramshackle place (an old roadside café) and I could not believe that David and his 11 siblings were all raised there. To us that was the second biggest thrill next to meeting David in person. We also visited his high school and saw his jersey in a trophy case: we could not get over how small it was!
In 1973 he led NC State to a 27-0 record but the Wolfpack was banned from postseason play due to NCAA rule violations involving his recruitment: how was he viewed at the time? He was certainly viewed as a savior. If you look at the violations the words he used were “ticky-tack” and it was a set-up by an alumnus of UNC. I am not a conspiracy theorist but I think that it would not have happened had he not been such a dominant player. He said that the NCAA investigator was actually the roommate of an assistant coach at UNC! I do not think people held it against David at all because they would not have been such a great team without him.
In the 1973 World University Games gold medal game against the unbeaten host country Soviet Union, he had 24 PTS/10 REB for team USA in an 8-PT win en route to being named tourney MVP: how big a deal was it to beat the USSR in Moscow only 1 year after the infamous 1972 Olympic gold medal game? I think that it was a very big deal. I cannot recall if it was televised but Team USA was salivating at the chance for revenge. In hindsight it is funny to say the word “revenge” but you have to remember this was much bigger than just a basketball game: we are talking Cold War stuff here. Their only enemy back then was the USSR, especially after the US was robbed in the 1972 Olympics. David was asked to join the 1972 Olympic team but his knee was giving him problems and the coach would not guarantee him a starting spot, which is crazy if you think about it. Not only would David have been the most talented person on the floor, but people forget that he was a team player and the team came first before his personal accomplishments. The coach was Henry Iba, who played a very slow/methodical game: that was fine in previous decades but the sport was moving in a different direction where it was played faster and more freestyle. Incidentally, Iba was the same guy who discouraged Pete Maravich from playing on the 1968 Olympic squad. Now Iba has two gold medals as a coach but I think that he was personally wrong by 1972. The game had passed Iba by and David represented the future.
Take me through the magical 1974 NCAA postseason:
In the ACC tourney title game he scored 29 PTS in a 3-PT OT win over Maryland: why is that still considered one of the best college basketball games ever? You would have to compare it to a prizefight: each team was loaded with talent and they battled back and forth while giving it all they had. It was basketball at its best: you knew that you were watching something very special. The ratings were extremely high during an era when the NIT was the premier postseason tourney, but that game drew attention away from the NIT and made it special.
In the Final 4 in Greensboro he had 28 PTS/10 REB in a 3-PT 2-OT win over UCLA: how was he able to lead his team to a win over the 7-time-defending champs and 3-time national POY Bill Walton (who had 29 PTS/18 REB in 50 minutes) despite having 15 stitches in his head? The 84-66 loss to UCLA in December of 1973 in St. Louis really pumped them up for the rematch in March at the Final Four. The prior game was just created for TV and many of the NC State players were off that night. College basketball was not aired regionally back then so UCLA was always on national TV and everyone knew who they were. If a “David” wants to take on a “Goliath” then that is the game that you get pumped up for.
In the title game he scored 21 PTS/7-12 FG in a win over Marquette en route to being named tourney MOP: what did it mean to him to win a title, and what was the reaction like when they got back to campus? There is always elation when you win your 1st title but what was interesting was that David said the bus ride back from the coliseum to the motel was surprisingly calm and silent, as if they could not believe what they had just accomplished. They also ate dinner together that night, which was also subdued: they just wanted to relax and smell the roses. The following day there was a celebration for them and 10,000 people showed up at a planned event for the team. Of course they were elated they won the title but the real impact was felt the following season: Tommy Burleson left for the NBA so the 2 main stars were David/Monte Towe. It was a party atmosphere the rest of the year and David said he went from being a social drinker to an everyday drinker. As David so eloquently said in the book, “It is hard to stop drinking when you are constantly the toast of the town.” Also, when they lost such an offensive threat like Burleson it is natural that all of their opponents would focus their attention on David…and they did. They were still a good team (ranked in the top-10 nationally) and had a very respectable 22-6 record. They lost to a very talented UNC team, which included Phil Ford/Mitch Kupchak/Walter Davis/Tom LaGarde – all future pros.
David was a 2-time national POY in 1974/1975 and in 2003 he was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men’s basketball team: where does he rank among the greatest players in college basketball history? I have to believe that he is in the top-5/top-10. You have legends like Wilt Chamberlain/Lew Alcindor/Pete Maravich/Bill Walton/Bill Russell…also Oscar Robertson as well as Jerry West. Those are some of the most essential players ever but David was just as impactful as they were in college.
In the summer of 1975 he was selected 1st overall by both Atlanta in the NBA draft and by Virginia in the ABA draft, and after getting traded to Denver he was named 1976 ABA ROY: why did he choose the ABA over the NBA, and how was he able to make such a smooth transition from college to the pros? The Hawks’ pick was part of the Maravich trade from Atlanta to New Orleans in 1974. There were 2 things at play: Denver was not an established basketball town (so he could make his mark there immediately), and the ABA was more suited to his style of play. David only got better as he got older: in high school he scored 18 PPG but continued to raise his average in college and then pro basketball. The interesting thing is that even though he was a rural kid he had an inner-city style that was welcomed by the ABA. David also based his decision on the fact that Julius Erving/Charlie Scott/George Gervin also played in the ABA and he did not think that 1 league was better than the other. I think he made a wise choice by going to the ABA: Atlanta was quite a mess after Maravich left and Denver greeted him like he was the Second Coming.
He helped invent the alley-oop during his college days (since dunking was outlawed at the time) and as a rookie with the Nuggets Brent Musburger nicknamed him “Skywalker” due to his 44” vertical leap: how much of his success was due to his athleticism? I think that almost 100% of his success was due to his athleticism. He could very well be the 1st athlete in professional basketball at that time to rely solely on his athleticism: his fundamentals were strong but his physical ability was amazing. The NBA itself transformed from fundamentals to athleticism. The alley-oop became necessary after the NCAA banned dunking from 1967-1976. I think that it was a racist rule created specifically for Lew Alcindor: think about how exciting the game is today with dunks! David/Monte created that play at NC State and people loved it. It truly put them on the map.
On the final day of the 1978 regular season he scored a career-high 73 PTS/28-38 FG in 43 minutes (including a then-NBA record 32 PTS in the 2nd quarter) for Denver in a 2-PT loss to Detroit: was it just 1 of those situations where every shot he put up seemed to go in because he was “in the zone”, and how disappointed was he to finish 2nd in the scoring race after San Antonio’s George Gervin scored 63 PTS later that day? It was definitely one of those nights: every great athlete will tell you that there are a couple of occasions where everything just falls into place. Basketball is a game of momentum/confidence: if you hit your first couple of shots then you feel like you might make your next 10 in a row. Everything was going in for David that day and he just went with the flow. I think that David was actually too pooped to be upset about it at the time but maybe he was later. That was a very big sports day: I specifically remember it dominating the sports headlines.
A couple of weeks later he signed a 5-year/$4 million contract: how did he like becoming the highest-paid player in the history of team sports at the tender age of 23? David was glad to be compensated for his work but it also brought a pressure to him that he had never known before: his very 1st shot after he signed the contract was an airball! It was a double-edged sword: it was nice to be a millionaire but with that came unbelievable pressure to perform his best every night. The franchise was now on his shoulders.
He remains the only player ever to be named All-Star Game MVP in both the ABA (29 PTS/9-18 FG in 34 minutes in 1976) and NBA (25 PTS/11-17 FG in 34 minutes in 1979): how was he able to play his best against the best? He noted in the book that the sign of a great player is they always perform their best when competing against the best. He always got up for the opponents who would bring out the best in him.
He was out of pro basketball by age 29 due to a variety of injures/off-court problems, yet was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006: when people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? He was Michael Jordan’s idol, which is no small feat. His athleticism had an impact on the ABA so he along with people like Erving/Gervin deserves a lot of credit for the transformation of that particular league. He was 1 of the best college players ever and I believe 1 of many great ABA players who helped force the ABA-NBA merger. Part of his legacy is that he did not live up to his full potential…but I know for a fact that he has come to peace with that. He had 5 really great years in the NBA but probably could have had 10 great years if he remained injury-free and was a better steward of his health. He was one of the most exciting players ever to watch and there is still magic associated with his name for those who know the game.