Roy Williams, Coach K and others honor Georgetown basketball legend John Thompson

Legendary Georgetown coach John Thompson visited Chapel Hill back in November 2015 to receive the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s inaugural Dean Smith Award. During his acceptance speech, he joked about this very moment.

“When people pass, you hear more lies about them than anything in their life,” Thompson said. “You go to a funeral, I mean the man is like Satan and they put him at St. Peter’s gate. I go and I listen and you never thought the person committed a sin in his life. I’m sitting there going, ‘Is this the same person that I know that they’re talking about?’”

Well, as the sports world spent Monday remembering Thompson, who died Sunday at the age of 78, the opposite is true. There’s no denying he could be an intimidating figure who had a gruff exterior. But those that knew him best appreciate the side that wasn’t widely known.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams called Thompson, a “sweetheart of a guy.” The two long had a friendship that came about as a direct result of Thompson’s friendship with Dean Smith. When Williams first became a head coach at Kansas, he asked and was welcomed by Thompson to watch how he conducted Georgetown’s practices. And this past season, during what Williams described at the most difficult season of his coaching career, Thompson called to offer his support.

“He was very emotional but very straightforward,” Williams told The News & Observer on Monday. “He told me to stop beating myself up. He cared about people it wasn’t just about the score of the game. We’ve lost a great man. Our game lost a great man.”

Roy Williams, Kevin Keatts, Coach K reflect on Thompson

Some of the things Thompson did might seem like hyperbole to those who never got a chance to witness him coaching. Like the time he summoned the baddest drug dealer in Washington, D.C., to his office, to tell him to stay away from Alonzo Mourning and Georgetown basketball players that happened to frequent the same nightclub. Or the time he famously walked off the court before a game against Boston College in 1989 to protest and bring attention to what he felt was discriminatory NCAA legislation known as Prop 48.

N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said that’s what made Thompson great, not just winning a lot of games – including the 1984 national championship.

“He was a giant in basketball,” Keatts told the N&O Monday. “It’s safe to say, we’ll be hard pressed to ever see another John Thompson. You can find some people who are great in certain areas, but he was the total package.”

Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski echoed those sentiments in a statement released by the school: “Repeatedly, I was amazed at his passion for doing what is right, even when unpopular and no one was looking. Given his record of success and dedicated advocacy for college basketball and other social issues, John was a one-of-a-kind leader and an absolute treasure.”

Tommy Amaker worked to emulate Thompson

Thompson used to joke that he was fluent in two languages, English and profanity. Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said after Thompson retired that he greeted the former Duke star with the same line whenever they saw each other: “You know you’re the last (expletive) to beat my ass.” (Amaker, who was then the head coach at Seton Hall, beat Thompson’s Hoyas 72-61 on Jan. 4, 1999 in East Rutherford, N.J. Thompson gave way to assistant Craig Esherick to coach the rest of the season after that game.)

Amaker said he tried to emulate Thompson, minus the language of course, in how he viewed his role as a teacher. Amaker said all of the great coaches like Krzyzewski, Smith and Thompson are at their core teachers and educators.

Thompson coached from the sidelines with that trademark towel draped across his shoulder. Lesser known to the masses, but just as much a part of his brand, was the deflated basketball he kept in his office. He used it as a reminder for his players that it was more important to prepare for the day when they had to stop playing basketball.

“There are a lot of smart people but few that are wise,” Amaker told the N&O Monday. “There are a lot of respected people but fewer are revered. You talk about a lot of people who have had success, but there are only a few that have been significant. That to me, is who he is – wise, revered and significant.”

He was also unapologetically Black at a time when there were few Black head coaches in NCAA Division I basketball. Thompson fought for Black coaches to have a voice in college basketball.

N.C. Central coach LeVelle Moton wrote in a text message to the N&O, “He stood up for human rights long before it was popular. I’m sure I speak for every black coach when I say this, I am, We are, because of him.”

The first Black college coach Johnny Dawkins had ever seen

UCF coach Johnny Dawkins, who grew up in D.C., called Thompson “groundbreaking.” Dawkins told the N&O that Thompson was the first Black college coach he’d ever seen. Way before he ever dreamed of being a coach, Dawkins said it was special to see someone who liked him in a position of authority at a place like Georgetown.

It was an even better experience up close. Thompson chose Dawkins to play with his team in the U.S. Sports Festival in the summer of 1981. Dawkins was the only high school player in the event and played on a roster that included Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullins and Adrian Branch.

“What he did for me just overall helped my career from a standpoint of he thought enough of me to play against college players,” Dawkins said. “It was an important step for my career for what he allowed me to be exposed to. When I went back home after competing, I was different. It was an honor and an incredible experience to play for coach Thompson.”

An experience that Michael Jordan didn’t have, but paid the ultimate compliment. Back at the 2015 award ceremony, Jordan recorded a congratulatory video for Thompson and said: “I wish I would have had an opportunity to play for coach Thompson, because I know it wouldn’t have been any different than playing for coach Smith.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 8:10 PM with the headline "Roy Williams, Coach K and others honor Georgetown basketball legend John Thompson."