What do Michael Jordan, JJ Redick, Jerry West, David Thompson, and Ray Allen have in frequent? College basketball analyst and Lord of Listicles John Whitaker launched his high taking pictures guards in males’s faculty basketball historical past final week, and whittled his high 5 to that group. Unfortunately, his high 5 is a complicated Rubik’s Cube. BigGameBoomer’s try to tackle this gargantuan job is laudable, and though his effort is appreciated, he put some questionable takes onto Hoops Twitter that can’t go unchallenged.
Chief amongst these missteps is his proclamation of Michael Jordan as the best taking pictures guard in faculty basketball historical past. Jordan ultimately grew to become the GOAT, however he’s not even one of the best faculty taking pictures guard from a North Carolina college. NBA careers are the place legacies and propaganda are sometimes cemented, however inside the confines of newbie basketball, Jordan appears as much as one man. If you assume I’m referring to JJ Redick (who’s third on BigGameBoomer’s rating) based mostly on that description, I would like you to reassess every part about your life. And if Redick himself sees this, hopefully he doesn’t add it to his checklist of grievances, however the GOAT of taking pictures guards is David Thompson — and it’s not significantly shut.
No one doubts that Jordan’s resume in three years at UNC was elegant. Hitting the game-winning shot within the nationwide championship as a freshman provides Jordan a leg up over Thompson, who landed at NC State a 12 months earlier than the NCAA modified its guidelines on freshman eligibility and didn’t log a single D1 minute.
MJ’s 17.7 factors per sport on 54 % taking pictures, 5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per contest — together with two mentions on the All-American Team and a Naismith National Player of the Year Award as a junior — propelled him towards his deific NBA tenure, however Thompson was legendary throughout his NC State profession.
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Even and not using a freshman season, “Skywalker Thompson” left his mark as an ethereal expertise and nonpareil athlete from the minute he touched the courtroom and he shortly made up for misplaced time. In three seasons, Thompson logged 27 factors per sport on 55 % taking pictures and nabbed 8.1 rebounds as a 6-foot-4 guard.
In his first 12 months of eligibility, Thompson carried an NC State group that had registered 29 wins and 24 losses within the two seasons previous to an undefeated 27-0 season, however he was prevented from taking part within the event as a consequence of violations the Wolfpack dedicated throughout his recruitment.
No matter, Thompson went about proving he was Him in his junior season by spearheading a 30-1 season that produced in NC State’s first nationwide championship and left little question about his place in faculty basketball lore.
Thompson’s seminal second occurred within the Final Four, when he scored 28 to finish John Wooden’s streak of seven consecutive nationwide championships and swatted three-time National Player of the Year Bill Walton’s shot again to Westwood early within the first half to set the tone. Thompson was a doorstop to the 6-foot-11 Walton, however per common his 44-inch vertical leap was the nice equalizer. Thompson’s encore efficiency resulted in him incomes the 1975 Naismith Player of the Year award earlier than getting drafted first general in that 12 months’s ABA Draft.
The most devastating facet of Thompson’s underrated profession wasn’t even that he was prevented from taking part in as a freshman like MJ. It’s that the “Lew Alcindor rule”, which banned dunking, was in place till 1976, properly after Thompson exhausted his faculty eligibility. Even with these restrictions in place, Thompson and NC State level guard Monte Towe are sometimes credited with inventing the alley-oop. The NCAA’s archaic guidelines, and Thompson’s distinctive means, necessitated the innovation. Towe would merely throw it up the place Thompson would catch the cross, contort his physique in mid-air, and drop it into the cylinder with out grazing the tin.
Thompson by no means dunked till his ultimate sport, when he despatched a message to the NCAA by racing out in transition to flush his first and solely dunk as a university participant and was promptly awarded a technical foul for his crimes in opposition to gravity.
But Thompson was greater than only a leaper, and as if putting him behind Jordan wasn’t dangerous sufficient, contemplating Jerry West and JJ Redick forward of Thompson is perverse. West had an important faculty profession, however the bar is excessive and he wasn’t on Thompson’s degree, nor even MJ’s. Meanwhile, Redick ended his Duke profession as ACC’s all-time main scorer, however Thompson trails him by 460 factors regardless of taking part in 53 fewer video games.
There’s a cause Thompson was requested by Michael Jordan to introduce him for his 2009 induction into the faculty basketball Hall of Fame. Sporting News known as Jordan the following Dr. J., however so far as faculty greatness goes, he and his ilk will at all times lookup at David Thompson.