OT Mychal Thompson

[Denny Crane]

i remember there was a lot of hype around him the year he was drafted. Unfortunately for me, the NBA on TV back then was mostly Lakers vs. Celtics games, so I didn't get to see him play.

Tell me about him...

 

[BBert]

He's a dirty Laker Lover.

Ptewey.

 

[HailBlazers]

Klay got his good looks from his mother

 

[Denny Crane]

I know he went to the Magic era Lakers as a bench player. He must have been pretty good for the Blazers when he was young, no?

 

[BlazerWookee]

He wore cool necklaces while he played.

 

[Denny Crane]

Heh. He was as hyped as Oden, I remenber that much. You'd think Blazers fans would have been happy to get him.

 

[riverman]

Thompson was a first round pick but actually grew into a 20/10 guy after a few years. He won two rings backing up Kareem and was the guy the showtime Lakers used to guard McHale..good defender. They made a movie of his trailblazer career a couple of years ago

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I used to love the radio show he and Kermit Washington had.

 

[BlazerWookee]

Heh. He was as hyped as Oden, I remenber that much. You'd think Blazers fans would have been happy to get him.

I know I was...

 

[Denny Crane]

There was a weird pattern back then. A team would be kind of middle of the pack in the regular season and go on to win the championship. next season, they'd dominate but fail to win it. Two-peats didn't happen. I think this was true of Portland, Washington, Golden State, and Seattle.

Thompson was taken with the 1st pick in the 1st round by a team that won the championship a couple seasons prior.

Looking at the roster his rookie season, there were pretty good players. Ron Brewer was a stud in college and a rookie that year. Hollins, Twardzik, Lucas, TR Dunn, Steele, Gross, and Tom Owens. In fact, Owen was so good he must have forced Dr. Jack to play Thompson at PF.

 

[Denny Crane]

I apologize for the typos, I'm using a tablet to post.

 

[Natebishop3]

I used to go to his post-game show at Tony Roma's all the time. Really nice guy.

 

[jlprk]

Tell me about him...

He was considered a joker with talent, who didn't take his career very seriously. As a super-serious poster, I just hate guys like that... Verbal, became the Sonics colorman for a couple of years after he retired. Great chemistry with Kevin Calabro.

The Lakers acquired him in what they arrogantly bragged was a steal, but then they drafted Vlade Divac, who was better. When Jabbar retired, Thompson and Divac split the job. Thompson started the first year, and Divac the second. I was living there and watched Divac take over, which verified the Blazers opinion of him as kind of flaky.

But he's a great personality and looks much better than Klay the Nose.

 

[Denny Crane]

He went to the Lakers at age 32. It's hard to see him competing for the starting job at age 33 or 34.

My recollection was the Celtics loved their white players and the Lakers were almost an entirely black team. While the Celtics had Ainge, Bird, McHale and guys like Rick Robey on the bench, the Lakers added Kurt Rambis (later Divac) as the only white player. The Celtics picked up the one and only Bill Walton, the Lakers got Thompson and McAoo (SIC, no "D"). Pistol Pete even spent time as a reserve for those celtics.

 

[jlprk]

You're mixing eras a decade apart. Also, don't forget that in the 80s, Boston was a cesspool of demonstrations about school bussing.

 

[Denny Crane]

I'm not mixing up the decades. Thompson joined the Lakers in '86. Walton won 6th man of the year for the celtics a year earlier.

I remember the fist fights and brawls that occurred in Ted Kennedy's home town. Boston (Massachusetts) is far from a Southern state.

 

[riverman]

He went to the Lakers at age 32. It's hard to see him competing for the starting job at age 33 or 34.

My recollection was the Celtics loved their white players and the Lakers were almost an entirely black team. While the Celtics had Ainge, Bird, McHale and guys like Rick Robey on the bench, the Lakers added Kurt Rambis (later Divac) as the only white player. The Celtics picked up the one and only Bill Walton, the Lakers got Thompson and McAoo (SIC, no "D"). Pistol Pete even spent time as a reserve for those celtics.

I remember the Blazers trading Thompson to the Spurs and they traded him to the Lakers. He was a Blazer for about 8 seasons and a Spur for a short stint

 

[Denny Crane]

The celtics also refused players from the ABA dispersal draft. The 76ers got Dr. J. The Blazers got Lucas and Moses Malone. Wow!

 

[jlprk]

Thompson was a clever, personable, likeable talker, but turned out to be not the toughest enforcer around. His career ended a couple of years earlier than necessary because of the presence of Divac.

 

[kjironman1]

There was a weird pattern back then. A team would be kind of middle of the pack in the regular season and go on to win the championship. next season, they'd dominate but fail to win it. Two-peats didn't happen. I think this was true of Portland, Washington, Golden State, and Seattle.

Thompson was taken with the 1st pick in the 1st round by a team that won the championship a couple seasons prior.

Looking at the roster his rookie season, there were pretty good players. Ron Brewer was a stud in college and a rookie that year. Hollins, Twardzik, Lucas, TR Dunn, Steele, Gross, and Tom Owens. In fact, Owen was so good he must have forced Dr. Jack to play Thompson at PF.

You have to realize that a lot of players were playing 4 years in college then. Drafting was much different. In 1978 you couldn't take a player as a one and done as i recall, and absolutely not from High school. Lots of players were still trying to make the Olympic team every 4 years.

 

[Denny Crane]

Not 4 years of college.

http://espn.go.com/classic/s/moment010624four-year-rule.html

Darryl Dawkins went from high school to the NBA in 1975...

 

[HailBlazers]

I used to go to his post-game show at Tony Roma's all the time. Really nice guy.

#&$@ those were the days.

 

[OneLifeToLive]

I used to love the radio show he and Kermit Washington had.

I always felt he was flaky.

 

[kjironman1]

Not 4 years of college.

http://espn.go.com/classic/s/moment010624four-year-rule.html

Darryl Dawkins went from high school to the NBA in 1975...

Yes there were hardship cases but most went 4 years. My point here is that drafting players was a different game back then.

 

[Denny Crane]

I don't think 4 years was the norm, exactly. Jordan was drafted in '84 as a junior. Hakeem played 3 years at U of Houston. Barkley played 3 years at Auburn.

Thompson played 4 years at Minnesota, though. More players did, in fact, finish college. The NBA teams really weren't geared toward developing teenagers to be sophisticated adults (e.g. rich).

 

[kjironman1]

I don't think 4 years was the norm, exactly. Jordan was drafted in '84 as a junior. Hakeem played 3 years at U of Houston. Barkley played 3 years at Auburn.

Thompson played 4 years at Minnesota, though. More players did, in fact, finish college. The NBA teams really weren't geared toward developing teenagers to be sophisticated adults (e.g. rich).

By then it was getting pretty obvious things were going to change. I think some of it had to do with US Olympics loss. It was getting tougher and tougher to compete against eastern teams that were together for a decade. By 92' the stage had already been set. 80 and 84 were years of boycott and the loss in 88 was not taken well here in the US. That changed the NBA forever.

 

[Denny Crane]

I think it was the ABA allowing hardship draftees. They scored Dr. J and McGinnis and a few others that would normally have been very high draft picks in the NBA and franchise players.

Plus the league was sued by Spencer Haywood (a really good PF, BTW, career 20/10 averages) and lost:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haywood_v._National_Basketball_Ass'n

 

[chris_in_pdx]

I used to love the radio show he and Kermit Washington had.

That radio show was must-listen. The chemistry those two had was incredible. Golden Days of Portland sports talk radio.

 

[e_blazer]

I remember being so excited when the Blazers got the #1 pick in the 1978 draft. The Blazers had won the title the year before and then won 50 of their first 60 games in the 1977-78 season before Walton was injured. I figured that Walton would heal up over the summer and then we'd have a front line rotation of Walton, Lucas and Thompson and be set to win titles for years to come. Unfortunately, Walton demanded a trade that summer, sat out the next season pouting when the Blazers wouldn't make the trade, and left the following summer. Thompson was good, but hardly in Walton's league. It was tough watching a potential dynasty slip away.

But then we got another chance with Oden, Roy and Aldridge...so there's that.

 

[Denny Crane]

If you think about it, Thompson+Brewer in that draft is a lot like LMA+Roy