Underrated Hoopers: David Thompson

David Thompson. Skywalker. The idol of one Michael Jeffrey Jordan. One of the greatest athletes of all time, a ridiculous freak of nature, an incredible college player, and an elite scorer, Thompson has all the talent to be looked at as one of the greatest to ever do it. And yet, the average fan doesn’t recognize him. He gets overlooked in all time discussions, another legend lost to the 70s. But that isn’t right, so in this installation of Underrated Hoopers, we’ll elevate one of the best shooting guards of the 1970s. 

Career Path

David Thompson, simply put, is one of the greatest college athletes ever. Playing at NC State, Thompson led all NCAA men in scoring all three years of his college career, making All American all three years as well, and winning AP Player of the Year in his second and third seasons, as long as practically any other award you can think of. In 1974, his NC State even winning the NCAA championship. There isn’t much more you can desire out of a college career: Thompson did it all. 

All this success made Thompson a hot commodity as the 1975 NBA draft approached. The Atlanta Hawks were the lucky winners of the lottery, and Skywalker was the clear number one overall pick, which the Hawks made. There was only one problem: Thompson didn’t want to go to the NBA. He was a competitor, and he wanted to compete against the best. Nowadays, that seems ridiculous. The NBA IS the best. It’s the best show in the world, the best hoopers in the world. But in 1975, the basketball landscape was different. There were two prominent basketball leagues, the NBA and the ABA. The ABA was home to great players like George Gervin and Julius Erving, and in the opinion of Thompson, it was the better competition. 

So Thompson refused the Hawks contract and went instead to the Denver Nuggets of the ABA. This was shocking to the NBA. No longer were they the dominant force of basketball: they had just lost the best prospect in recent history to their counterpart league. Thompson’s decision was a big reason for the merging of the two leagues, as the NBA wanted to eliminate their competition by assimilating some of their teams.

Thompson had a great first year in the ABA, teaming up with legends like Dan Issel and Bobby Jones, and the Nuggets won 60 games, making them first in the league. Thompson himself averaged 26, 6, and 4, winning Rookie of the Year and finishing second in MVP voting. They made it all the way to the ABA finals but came up short, losing to Dr J, who averaged 38 and 14, and the New York Nets. The next year, the Nuggets, along with the Nets, Pacers, and Spurs, made their transition to the NBA, merging the best basketball talents in the world. 

Thompson wouldn’t slow down once reaching the league, as he would make three straight All Star games once joining the NBA, as well as two All NBA teams, and consistently putting up some of the best scoring numbers in the league. His most impressive feat came in 1978 against the Detroit Pistons, when he scored 73 points in a single game. Him and George Gervin had been competing for the scoring title that year, and Thompson’s 73 put him in the lead on the last game of the season. Gervin, however, came right back, scoring 63 of his own in his game, stealing the scoring title from Thompson. 

Unfortunately, in 1980, the world came crashing down for Thompson. He suffered a bad foot injury, keeping him out for most of that season, and bringing another terrible side effect. Thompson started suffering from substance abuse. He still performed fairly well in the following season, but as the issue continued, it became more and more prominent. The Nuggets ended up trading him to Seattle in 1982 for Bill Hanzlik and a draft pick, marking the end of Thompson’s legendary tenure as a Nugget. 

As a Sonic, Thompson’s career would slow down even further. He did make an All Star team his first season there, but his abuse issues persisted, and when he got injured again in the 1984 season, it became pretty clear Thompson was done. At just 29 years old, struggling from injury and addiction, one of the greatest athletes ever to enter the NBA retired.

Peak

Discarding his college years, the peak of Skywalker is incredibly easy to pinpoint, both from the winning and individual perspectives. David Thompson was a Denver Nugget. That is where he played his best basketball, but which years exactly?

From a winning perspective, Thompson and the Nuggets never really rose all the way to the top levels, as he never made it past the second round in the NBA. The earlier years of Thompson’s career were easily the best, however. His rookie year in the ABA, they made the ABA Finals, and they were the best team in the NBA Midwest Division following the merger. They made the playoffs every year from ’77 to ’79, and those were pretty clearly the best years for them as a team.

The individual peak for Thompson came at the same time. From his rookie ABA year in ’76 to ’79, Thompson placed in MVP voting every year, was consistently one of the best scorers in the league, and made All NBA in 1977 and 1978. Number wise, these were Thompson’s highest volume years, most efficient years, and the best defensive years of his career. Once he started struggling with injury and addiction, his impact wore off noticeably.

Playstyle

The nickname Skywalker wasn’t a coincidence. Thompson could practically touch the heavens with his vertical, and it was obvious in his playstyle. He launched himself towards the rim, challenging big men and dropping posters for the ages. His hops were useful on the defensive end as well, allowing him to pin shots to the glass and swat shots away that most guards couldn’t reach. He averaged over a block a game for many of his younger years.

But beyond Thompson’s leaping ability, he was elite at many other aspects as well. He was great at getting to the rim, driving with incredible speed, and one of the best first steps ever. But on top of that, the rest of his scoring game was deadly, with a solid jumper and good touch around the rim, allowing for him to put up the great scoring numbers that he did, both in terms of volume and efficiency. Playmaking had never been the focal point of Thompson’s game, as he was a score first guard, but he did have solid instincts for finding his teammates, and he put up decent assist numbers for much of his career.

Defensively, Thompson wasn’t regarded as one of the best in the league, but his great athleticism alongside a solid technical understanding of the game allowed for him to be far from a liability on that end, forcing turnovers and contesting shots with the best of them.

The weaknesses in Thompson’s game came from how turnover prone he was. The years that Skywalker played are some of the first where turnovers were actually tracked, and they were a blemish on an otherwise great stat sheet. He averaged 2.7 turnovers per game across his career, along with multiple seasons where he averaged over three. In the playoffs, he averaged 3.3 turnovers per game, an ugly number that put him in the worst section of the league for that statistic, especially considering that many players above him had more assists. Still, however, a player with the ball in their hands as much as Thompson is bound to turn it over, a trend that has continued throughout the history of basketball.

In terms of a current player comparison for Thompson, there are a few that could work. There are certainly some insane athletes in the league today, guys like Peyton Watson and Amen Thompson who use their athleticism on the defensive end, and guys like Derrick Jones Jr who use it to play as lob threats and slashers. At the end of the day, however, the best comparison I could come up with was Donovan Mitchell. Elite athletic guards who love to attack the rim but have an arsenal of moves outside of the lane as well. Mitchell goes to the three ball significantly more than Thompson did, although that is more a product of the eras than anything else. Thompson was slightly bigger, but there are certainly similarities in the games of the two.

So, Why Isn’t He Remembered?

How does one of the only players ever to score 70 points in a game get forgotten about by so many fans? How does one of the greatest college players ever fly under the radar? The answer is, for a few reasons.

Firstly, the 1970s are far from the most popular era of basketball. Besides some select players, like Kareem, Dr J, and Havlicek, many of the greats of this time get forgotten about, neglected into a sort of basketball No Mans Land. Part of this is just time, but also a lack of effort of the current day fan to learn the players of the past. As unfortunate as it is, Skywalker has been lumped in with the “plumbers” conversation.

Secondly, Thompson’s career was short, and not for reasons the NBA would like to shine a spotlight on. Players struggling with addictions wasn’t something that made the NBA look like one of the worlds premiere sports leagues. Thankfully, Thompson has since overcome his struggles, and now serves as a speaker and activist for the fight against substance abuse, but nonetheless, having just a nine year career hurts Thompson’s chances of being remembered as an all time legend.

And finally, Denver isn’t the biggest market for basketball. They have fans, and they’ve enjoyed success, especially recently, but unlike teams like the Lakers or Knicks, the Nuggets don’t have the spotlight of the average fan. By spending his whole career there, Thompson lost some of the fame he might have enjoyed in other markets.

None of these reasons, really, are good excuses to forget about one of the best players ever to step onto the hardwood, as no reason ever is. So next time you’re debating with your friends about the greatest scorers, athletes, or college hoopers of all time, just remember: it takes a special type of player to be the idol of Michael Jordan.