UGA Basketball
SEC Basketball
Kentucky
CBS Sports: Kentucky basketball roster: Starting lineup prediction, bench rotation, depth outlook for 2022-23 season
Mississippi
Jackson Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss basketball's Daeshun Ruffin gives progress report on ACL injury recovery
College Basketball
CBS Sports: Gonzaga, Michigan State to play on aircraft carrier off coast of San Diego for Veterans Day 2022
Recruiting never ends…
UCLA
NBA
The Ringer: Where Will Donovan Mitchell Land? It Depends on Kevin Durant.
History
USA Today: NBA to create $24.5 million program for former ABA players: 'This will be life changing for them'
Hoops Birthdays. 7-13
Bob Kauffman PF Guilford College Seas, CHI, BUF, ATL 1968-1975 born 7-13-1946 died 7-25-2015
HOF Frank Ramsey SG Kentucky BOS 1954-1964 born 7-13-1931 died 7-08-2018
HOF: “ Basketball publications describe Frank Ramsey as a confident, cerebral player who enjoyed pressure-filled situations and always excelled in the clutch. That description appropriately fit a player who, as a talented sixth man, could have started for many NBA teams but was an integral part of the Celtics dynasty in the 1960s not as a starter but as the first player off the bench. As a collegian, Ramsey starred at the University of Kentucky under Hall of Fame coach Adolph Rupp where he was known as the "Kentucky Colonel" and was a three-time All-Southeastern Conference selection. Ramsey led Kentucky to a 32-2 record in 1951 and a perfect 25-0 season in 1954. As a pro, Ramsey averaged 13.4 points a game, and along with coach Red Auerbach, invented and popularized the sixth man role, igniting a Celtics team that featured Hall of Famers Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, and Tom Heinsohn.”
David Thompson SG NC State ATL D1 1975 DEN, SEA 7-13-1954 68 YOA
NYT: Hawks Lack Cash To Sign Thompson (7-02-1975)
“Simon Selig of Atlanta had announced an interest in purchasing the majority share of the Hawks, but he balked after the league owners had imposed a $400,000 fine on the club June 5 for signing Julius Erving in violation of the draft rules three years ago. The Hawks had to pay $250,000 to the league and $150,000 to the Milwaukee Bucks, who had drafted Erving. The Hawks were also fined the two No. 2 picks they will get in the 1976 college draft. The Hawks have not yet paid the fine, something they were to have done within five days.
Selig said yesterday in Atlanta that the reason approval of the sale was removed from the agenda was because the owners would not approve a transfer of ownership without a signed contract. Selig said he had not purchased the club yet and that he was still negotiating with Tom Cousins, the present owner.
The present capitalization of the Hawks is reported to be insufficient to meet the price tag of nearly $2‐million that it would take to sign the high‐scoring and talented Thompson.
The Hawks have made Thompson a sizable offer, but so have the Denver Nuggets of the American Basketball Association. The Virginia Squires hold the A.B.A. rights to Thompson but are willing to trade them to Denver if the Nuggets can sign him.
The Hawks have already lost Marvin Webster, their No. 3 draft selection, to Denver, primarily because of the unstable ownership. There are reports that many N.B.A. owners are unhappy the Hawks let the rival A.B.A. sign Webster, a star center in college.”
CPR News (9-11-2019: What Became Of Nuggets Star David Thompson After Injuries And Cocaine Derailed His Path To All-Time NBA Greatness
“As a rookie with the Nuggets, he went toe to toe with Julius Erving in the first-ever Slam Dunk Contest. He once scored 73 points in an NBA game. Shortly thereafter, he signed a then-record $4 million contract.
The runway to that ascent was a dirt court where Thompson first learned to love the game. Thompson grew up as the youngest of 11 children in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in a house that lacked indoor plumbing. Friends and family members converged there to play on the unpaved court out back. The rims were bicycle wheels with the spokes removed.
“No nets or anything,” said Thompson’s cousin Alvin Gentry, who was a regular on that court and now coaches the New Orleans Pelicans. “We’d go out there and play all day after church.”
Thompson was a 5-foot-8 eighth grader when he dunked a basketball for the first time. He knew he had God-given gifts, and he made sure to maximize them. He wore ankle weights when he trained, and he was constantly coming up with different series of jumping regimens. By 10th grade, he could stand in front of the basket, pogo stick straight up and touch his elbow to the rim 10 times in a row.
His 42-inch vertical leap landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records as a freshman at North Carolina State. That year, he also was on the finishing end of an alley oop for the first time, which like Post-it notes and penicillin was a happy accident. During practice, Thompson was getting overplayed by his defender. He cut toward the basket, wrangled a lob pass from point guard Monte Towe and dropped it in the orange cylinder mid-flight.
“Coach (Norman) Sloan stopped practice,” Thompson said. “He said, ‘Hey, I like that. Maybe we can put that in our offense.’ Smart coach he was.”
Dunking was banned in college at the time, so Thompson wasn’t able to punctuate those lob passes as authoritatively as he would’ve liked.
“I’ve always thought that one of the biggest tragedies of college basketball is there was no dunking when David Thompson played college basketball,” said Towe, who within weeks of playing alongside Thompson at North Carolina State wrote home to tell his parents in Indiana he had a teammate who was better than local legend Oscar Robertson.
On March 23, 1974, Thompson, with 15 stitches in his head, the result of a nasty spill he suffered the week before, led Towe and the rest of the team against UCLA in the NCAA Tournament semifinals. UCLA had won seven national titles in a row. Thompson scored 28 points, and the Wolfpack won. Two days later, he poured in 21 points as North Carolina State earned its first national championship in school history.
“David Thompson is barely bigger than my wife, Lori, and she’s 5-foot-3 and weighs 100 pounds,” Bill Walton, who starred for UCLA in the early ‘70s, told CPR. (At 6-foot-4, Thompson is not quite as small as Lori but is nowhere near the 6-foot-11 Walton.) “And David Thompson, in a game dominated by the winners of the genetic lottery, could get wherever he wanted to go.”
Walton still considers the loss to North Carolina State the most disappointing defeat of his career. “It is a stigma on my soul, and there’s no way I can get rid of it,” he told NCAA.com in 2015. But when Walton was approached to write the foreword for Thompson’s book in 2003, he didn’t think twice.
“The way he would soar through the air and elicit the incredible awestruck gasp of the audience; they had never seen anything like this,” Walton said. “It was super fun to be a part of that. Much more fun to be on the winning side, I’m sure. But I’m honored to be in his historical shadow.”
Thompson was at the height of his powers during the 1973-74 season. He averaged 26 points on 54.7% shooting, led North Carolina State to a 30-1 record and earned Most Outstanding Player honors at the NCAA Tournament. There were no indications then of the fall to come.
“Life is easy when you’re hot,” Walton wrote in Thompson’s biography, “Skywalker.” “David’s story is what you do when the ball bounces the other way.”
The Skywalker nickname began to stick during Thompson’s rookie season in Denver. CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger, who coined it, was inspired by the way Thompson crossed his legs as he soared through the air.
Thompson ended up in Denver, which was then part of the ABA, after spurning the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, who took him No. 1 overall in 1975. He was instantly one of the league’s biggest draws. He averaged 26 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists as a rookie. Prior to the All-Star Game, he faced Erving in the inaugural Slam Dunk Contest, which was the brainchild of former Nuggets executive Carl Scheer. Thompson threw down a two-handed 360, but Erving famously won it when he dunked from the free throw line.
“Dr. J marked off his steps and took off running,” Thompson recalled. “He had the short shorts and the big old afro. He took off running, and his afro was blowing in the wind. He dunked from the free throw line, and everybody went crazy. I came in second.”
The Nuggets finished the regular season 60-24, the best record in the ABA. They earned a first-round bye, then knocked off the Kentucky Colonels in seven games to reach the championship round against Erving’s New York Nets. Thompson played well in that first, and though he wouldn’t know it then, only Finals appearance of his professional career, but Erving was better. The Nets beat the Nuggets four games to two.
The 1976 Finals marked the end of play in the ABA — later that year, both teams joined the NBA as part of the merger — but they marked the beginning of something else. During the Finals, Thompson first tried cocaine.
Thompson had been searching for a pick-me-up after playing in more than 100 games as a rookie, so he turned to a drug that was on its way to becoming ubiquitous in professional basketball. Cocaine offered an energy boost, Thompson learned. It would take years before Thompson found out everything else that comes with it.
On April 17, 1978, Thompson agreed to a contract extension with the Nuggets that made him the highest-paid player in NBA history. The deal, which came a little more than a week after Thompson scored 73 points in Denver’s final game of the regular season, was worth $4 million over five years.
At first, it felt like a blessing. How could it not? A kid from Small Town, North Carolina, had struck it rich doing what he loved. But as time went by, those seven figures started to symbolize something else.
“I was excited about it,” Thompson. “But I didn’t realize how everybody was going to look at it. After I signed that contract, I was no longer David Thompson. I was David Thompson, the highest-paid player. David Thompson, the $4 million man.”
The 1979-80 season was a disaster. Thompson appeared in only 39 games as he dealt with plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the tissue that connects the heel to the toes. Sidelined for much of the season, Thompson’s cocaine use went from an occasional boost to a daily habit. Thompson began to realize he had a problem. He arrived late to practices. He missed team flights. He grew more distant.
“Sometimes the pressures of being a superstar or whatever, sometimes you fall back on some vices,” Thompson said. “Drinking and using, sometimes it would get out of hand, and that’s exactly what happened to me.”
Thompson loved basketball but not the fame that came with it. At times, he felt uncomfortable in the public eye.
“I think that was part of the downfall when he went through the tough times, said Gentry, who’s coached superstars such as Steve Nash and Anthony Davis. “He never asked to be this star person. He just wanted to be a great basketball player.
“I think everyone thinks that it would be something great, but when it actually happens to you, you understand there is no privacy and everybody thinks that they own a piece of you.”
In December 1979, Thompson resigned as co-captain. The Nuggets limped to a 30-52 record and missed the playoffs.
“When the team doesn’t do as well, you’ve always got to blame somebody,” Thompson said. “You making all the money, and the pressure started building.”
Things got so bad that his wife, Cathy, went to the police and asked them to arrest her husband’s drug dealer. She wanted her husband to stop using.
By the 1981-82 season, Thompson, who at 27 years old should have been entering his prime, lost his starting spot and began coming off the bench. His numbers fell off a cliff. He averaged 14.9 points after never contributing fewer than 21.5 per game in his first six seasons. Displeased with a reduced role, Thompson asked for a trade.
The Seattle SuperSonics decided to gamble on a player who only four years earlier had scored more points in a single game than any player not named Wilt Chamberlain. On June 16, 1982, as it became clear Thompson was on his way out of town, the Denver Post ran a series of stories detailing Thompson’s addiction.
“Nugget Star’s Use of Cocaine Disclosed,” the newspaper’s above-the-fold headline on A1 read.
In April 1987, Thompson involuntarily checked into the North Rehabilitation Center in Seattle. By that time, he’d squandered his money. His basketball career was over. The death knell was a gruesome knee injury he suffered falling down the staircase of Studio 54. He had recently been arrested for shoving his wife in a domestic dispute and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. Thompson ended up at the detention and rehab center instead of jail after the pastor of a local megachurch, Doug Murren, went to bat for him in front of a judge.
Meanwhile, Erving was wrapping up one of the most celebrated careers in professional basketball history. At halftime of his final game in Philadelphia, Erving walked out to the court where he was honored in front of the home crowd and asked to reflect on his 16-year career. The broadcaster interviewing Erving asked who his toughest opponents were. The first name out of his mouth? David Thompson.
Thompson watched this unfold with about 30 other patients inside the game room at the rehab facility. The entire room broke out in applause as Erving mentioned his old rival.
“It kind of hit home and really helped me turn myself around,” Thompson said. “He was on TV, and here I was in jail going through this situation. That kind of helped me as far as me wanting to get my life back on track. You kind of realize that you’ve got self worth.”
In that moment, Thompson took his first steps toward ending the cycle that cost him his career and fortune. Erving’s shoutout awakened some long-dormant part of him that made him realize who he was before alcohol and cocaine transformed him. It also stoked something inside of him that helped him imagine who he could become without his vices.
“It made me want to prove myself,” Thompson said, “and I was able to do that.”
Thompson was determined to stop allowing his mistakes to compound. He stayed for two months at North Rehabilitation Center, then completed the rest of his sentence at Issaquah City Jail. Inside, he cracked open the Bible and rediscovered the Christian faith he’d abandoned.
After so many years in a downward spiral, Thompson was finally ready to heal…”
Spud Webb PG NC State ATL, SAC, MIN, ORL 1985-1998 7-13-1963 59 YOA
Spud Webb: The Story Of The Shortest Slam Dunk Champion (1-12-2022)
Chicago Tribune: SPUD WEBB GETS SHOT AT BECOMING A BIG MAN (2-04-1990)
“Since coming into the league in 1985 and averaging just 15 minutes per game, Anthony ''Spud'' Webb has been viewed by some as more of a novelty, a cute little sideshow, than a legitimate National Basketball Association player.
At 5 feet 7 inches, 135 pounds, he looks more like an arena ball boy than a typical player in the NBA, where the average size is 6-7, 215.
'When I had a bad game, it was always because I was too small. If I had a good game, it was `look at what the little guy did.` It`s always been that way. You can`t change people`s minds when you only play a few minutes,'' Webb said. ''Now, maybe I can change that.''
Webb, in his fifth NBA season with the Atlanta Hawks, now has the chance to dispel the belief that he never would be more than a reserve who is used only for brief spurts, where his quickness can overcome his lack of size.
With starter Doc Rivers indefinitely sidelined with a herniated disc in his lower back, Webb is the starting point guard on a team that has struggled to play to its potential in recent years.
On a team loaded with talented big men (the Hawks have seven players 6-8 or taller), the littlest one may be the most important.
'He`s the man now,'' Hawks coach Mike Fratello said. ''He`s the one who has to pull it all together for us to make it work. It`s a great chance for him.''
Webb, who averaged 15 minutes, 3.9 points and 3.5 assists a game last season, has been averaging 35 minutes, 15 points and 8 assists since Rivers last played on Jan. 19. In the victory over Miami last Saturday, Webb had 20 points and six assists, frustrating the Magic`s trio of point guards.
''I`ve been waiting a long time to be a starter in this league, so this is the first real opportunity I`ve had to show I can be a complete basketball player,'' he said. ''It`s an opportunity that I`ve got to take advantage of. There probably are a lot of people who don`t think I can do it, but I`ve proved them wrong before.''
Webb originally was given little chance of making the NBA after two years at Midland (Tex.) Junior College and two at North Carolina State.
He was drafted in the fourth round by the Detroit Pistons (the 87th player chosen), and subsequently released. The Hawks, needing a backup point guard, signed him and liked the quickness he provided.
''I think I was the only one who totally believed in me as a player,''
Webb said. ''People still seem surprised when I have a good game. But I`ve always been confident in my abilities. I`m confident now that I can take my career to the next level.''
Although Webb is not the shortest player in the NBA, he is the slightest at 135 pounds. Muggsy Bogues of the Charlotte Hornets is only 5-4, and Greg Grant of Phoenix also is 5-7, but both are heavier than Webb.
''There are things I can do that can help us become a better team, like push the ball up the court, hit the open shot and play some defense,'' Webb said. ''But the point guard in our system is not supposed to stand out. He`s supposed to get the ball to the right spots. I can do that.''
Webb could be the starter for quite some time. Rivers, who was placed on the injured list Jan. 26, could be out for as little as three weeks and as much as the entire season, depending upon the treatment used on his back.
''For me, moving into the starting lineup isn`t that much different,''
Webb said. ''I`ve always thought I produced in the minutes I played. Now I just have to do it for 40 minutes instead of 15.''
SEC Basketball
Kentucky
CBS Sports: Kentucky basketball roster: Starting lineup prediction, bench rotation, depth outlook for 2022-23 season
Mississippi
Jackson Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss basketball's Daeshun Ruffin gives progress report on ACL injury recovery
Ole Miss basketball's Daeshun Ruffin gives progress report on ACL injury recovery
Daeshun Ruffin, Ole Miss basketball's point guard from Jackson, updated on his health and rehab schedule Tuesday after tearing his ACL in February.
www.clarionledger.com
College Basketball
CBS Sports: Gonzaga, Michigan State to play on aircraft carrier off coast of San Diego for Veterans Day 2022
Gonzaga, Michigan State to play on aircraft carrier off coast of San Diego for Veterans Day 2022
It's been 10 years since college hoops last played a game on the water
www.cbssports.com
Recruiting never ends…
UCLA
NBA
The Ringer: Where Will Donovan Mitchell Land? It Depends on Kevin Durant.
Where Will Donovan Mitchell Land? It Depends on Kevin Durant.
The Jazz are open to trading their All-Star leader, but they need the Nets to trade theirs first. There’s a trio of East teams expected to make competitive runs at Mitchell.
www.theringer.com
History
USA Today: NBA to create $24.5 million program for former ABA players: 'This will be life changing for them'
NBA to create $24.5 million program for former ABA players: 'This will be life changing for them'
About 115 former American Basketball Association players are eligible for payments from the NBA, ending a years-long battle for recognition.
www.usatoday.com
Hoops Birthdays. 7-13
Bob Kauffman PF Guilford College Seas, CHI, BUF, ATL 1968-1975 born 7-13-1946 died 7-25-2015
HOF Frank Ramsey SG Kentucky BOS 1954-1964 born 7-13-1931 died 7-08-2018
HOF: “ Basketball publications describe Frank Ramsey as a confident, cerebral player who enjoyed pressure-filled situations and always excelled in the clutch. That description appropriately fit a player who, as a talented sixth man, could have started for many NBA teams but was an integral part of the Celtics dynasty in the 1960s not as a starter but as the first player off the bench. As a collegian, Ramsey starred at the University of Kentucky under Hall of Fame coach Adolph Rupp where he was known as the "Kentucky Colonel" and was a three-time All-Southeastern Conference selection. Ramsey led Kentucky to a 32-2 record in 1951 and a perfect 25-0 season in 1954. As a pro, Ramsey averaged 13.4 points a game, and along with coach Red Auerbach, invented and popularized the sixth man role, igniting a Celtics team that featured Hall of Famers Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, and Tom Heinsohn.”
David Thompson SG NC State ATL D1 1975 DEN, SEA 7-13-1954 68 YOA
NYT: Hawks Lack Cash To Sign Thompson (7-02-1975)
“Simon Selig of Atlanta had announced an interest in purchasing the majority share of the Hawks, but he balked after the league owners had imposed a $400,000 fine on the club June 5 for signing Julius Erving in violation of the draft rules three years ago. The Hawks had to pay $250,000 to the league and $150,000 to the Milwaukee Bucks, who had drafted Erving. The Hawks were also fined the two No. 2 picks they will get in the 1976 college draft. The Hawks have not yet paid the fine, something they were to have done within five days.
Selig said yesterday in Atlanta that the reason approval of the sale was removed from the agenda was because the owners would not approve a transfer of ownership without a signed contract. Selig said he had not purchased the club yet and that he was still negotiating with Tom Cousins, the present owner.
The present capitalization of the Hawks is reported to be insufficient to meet the price tag of nearly $2‐million that it would take to sign the high‐scoring and talented Thompson.
The Hawks have made Thompson a sizable offer, but so have the Denver Nuggets of the American Basketball Association. The Virginia Squires hold the A.B.A. rights to Thompson but are willing to trade them to Denver if the Nuggets can sign him.
The Hawks have already lost Marvin Webster, their No. 3 draft selection, to Denver, primarily because of the unstable ownership. There are reports that many N.B.A. owners are unhappy the Hawks let the rival A.B.A. sign Webster, a star center in college.”
CPR News (9-11-2019: What Became Of Nuggets Star David Thompson After Injuries And Cocaine Derailed His Path To All-Time NBA Greatness
“As a rookie with the Nuggets, he went toe to toe with Julius Erving in the first-ever Slam Dunk Contest. He once scored 73 points in an NBA game. Shortly thereafter, he signed a then-record $4 million contract.
The runway to that ascent was a dirt court where Thompson first learned to love the game. Thompson grew up as the youngest of 11 children in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in a house that lacked indoor plumbing. Friends and family members converged there to play on the unpaved court out back. The rims were bicycle wheels with the spokes removed.
“No nets or anything,” said Thompson’s cousin Alvin Gentry, who was a regular on that court and now coaches the New Orleans Pelicans. “We’d go out there and play all day after church.”
Thompson was a 5-foot-8 eighth grader when he dunked a basketball for the first time. He knew he had God-given gifts, and he made sure to maximize them. He wore ankle weights when he trained, and he was constantly coming up with different series of jumping regimens. By 10th grade, he could stand in front of the basket, pogo stick straight up and touch his elbow to the rim 10 times in a row.
His 42-inch vertical leap landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records as a freshman at North Carolina State. That year, he also was on the finishing end of an alley oop for the first time, which like Post-it notes and penicillin was a happy accident. During practice, Thompson was getting overplayed by his defender. He cut toward the basket, wrangled a lob pass from point guard Monte Towe and dropped it in the orange cylinder mid-flight.
“Coach (Norman) Sloan stopped practice,” Thompson said. “He said, ‘Hey, I like that. Maybe we can put that in our offense.’ Smart coach he was.”
Dunking was banned in college at the time, so Thompson wasn’t able to punctuate those lob passes as authoritatively as he would’ve liked.
“I’ve always thought that one of the biggest tragedies of college basketball is there was no dunking when David Thompson played college basketball,” said Towe, who within weeks of playing alongside Thompson at North Carolina State wrote home to tell his parents in Indiana he had a teammate who was better than local legend Oscar Robertson.
On March 23, 1974, Thompson, with 15 stitches in his head, the result of a nasty spill he suffered the week before, led Towe and the rest of the team against UCLA in the NCAA Tournament semifinals. UCLA had won seven national titles in a row. Thompson scored 28 points, and the Wolfpack won. Two days later, he poured in 21 points as North Carolina State earned its first national championship in school history.
“David Thompson is barely bigger than my wife, Lori, and she’s 5-foot-3 and weighs 100 pounds,” Bill Walton, who starred for UCLA in the early ‘70s, told CPR. (At 6-foot-4, Thompson is not quite as small as Lori but is nowhere near the 6-foot-11 Walton.) “And David Thompson, in a game dominated by the winners of the genetic lottery, could get wherever he wanted to go.”
Walton still considers the loss to North Carolina State the most disappointing defeat of his career. “It is a stigma on my soul, and there’s no way I can get rid of it,” he told NCAA.com in 2015. But when Walton was approached to write the foreword for Thompson’s book in 2003, he didn’t think twice.
“The way he would soar through the air and elicit the incredible awestruck gasp of the audience; they had never seen anything like this,” Walton said. “It was super fun to be a part of that. Much more fun to be on the winning side, I’m sure. But I’m honored to be in his historical shadow.”
Thompson was at the height of his powers during the 1973-74 season. He averaged 26 points on 54.7% shooting, led North Carolina State to a 30-1 record and earned Most Outstanding Player honors at the NCAA Tournament. There were no indications then of the fall to come.
“Life is easy when you’re hot,” Walton wrote in Thompson’s biography, “Skywalker.” “David’s story is what you do when the ball bounces the other way.”
The Skywalker nickname began to stick during Thompson’s rookie season in Denver. CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger, who coined it, was inspired by the way Thompson crossed his legs as he soared through the air.
Thompson ended up in Denver, which was then part of the ABA, after spurning the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, who took him No. 1 overall in 1975. He was instantly one of the league’s biggest draws. He averaged 26 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists as a rookie. Prior to the All-Star Game, he faced Erving in the inaugural Slam Dunk Contest, which was the brainchild of former Nuggets executive Carl Scheer. Thompson threw down a two-handed 360, but Erving famously won it when he dunked from the free throw line.
“Dr. J marked off his steps and took off running,” Thompson recalled. “He had the short shorts and the big old afro. He took off running, and his afro was blowing in the wind. He dunked from the free throw line, and everybody went crazy. I came in second.”
The Nuggets finished the regular season 60-24, the best record in the ABA. They earned a first-round bye, then knocked off the Kentucky Colonels in seven games to reach the championship round against Erving’s New York Nets. Thompson played well in that first, and though he wouldn’t know it then, only Finals appearance of his professional career, but Erving was better. The Nets beat the Nuggets four games to two.
The 1976 Finals marked the end of play in the ABA — later that year, both teams joined the NBA as part of the merger — but they marked the beginning of something else. During the Finals, Thompson first tried cocaine.
Thompson had been searching for a pick-me-up after playing in more than 100 games as a rookie, so he turned to a drug that was on its way to becoming ubiquitous in professional basketball. Cocaine offered an energy boost, Thompson learned. It would take years before Thompson found out everything else that comes with it.
On April 17, 1978, Thompson agreed to a contract extension with the Nuggets that made him the highest-paid player in NBA history. The deal, which came a little more than a week after Thompson scored 73 points in Denver’s final game of the regular season, was worth $4 million over five years.
At first, it felt like a blessing. How could it not? A kid from Small Town, North Carolina, had struck it rich doing what he loved. But as time went by, those seven figures started to symbolize something else.
“I was excited about it,” Thompson. “But I didn’t realize how everybody was going to look at it. After I signed that contract, I was no longer David Thompson. I was David Thompson, the highest-paid player. David Thompson, the $4 million man.”
The 1979-80 season was a disaster. Thompson appeared in only 39 games as he dealt with plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the tissue that connects the heel to the toes. Sidelined for much of the season, Thompson’s cocaine use went from an occasional boost to a daily habit. Thompson began to realize he had a problem. He arrived late to practices. He missed team flights. He grew more distant.
“Sometimes the pressures of being a superstar or whatever, sometimes you fall back on some vices,” Thompson said. “Drinking and using, sometimes it would get out of hand, and that’s exactly what happened to me.”
Thompson loved basketball but not the fame that came with it. At times, he felt uncomfortable in the public eye.
“I think that was part of the downfall when he went through the tough times, said Gentry, who’s coached superstars such as Steve Nash and Anthony Davis. “He never asked to be this star person. He just wanted to be a great basketball player.
“I think everyone thinks that it would be something great, but when it actually happens to you, you understand there is no privacy and everybody thinks that they own a piece of you.”
In December 1979, Thompson resigned as co-captain. The Nuggets limped to a 30-52 record and missed the playoffs.
“When the team doesn’t do as well, you’ve always got to blame somebody,” Thompson said. “You making all the money, and the pressure started building.”
Things got so bad that his wife, Cathy, went to the police and asked them to arrest her husband’s drug dealer. She wanted her husband to stop using.
By the 1981-82 season, Thompson, who at 27 years old should have been entering his prime, lost his starting spot and began coming off the bench. His numbers fell off a cliff. He averaged 14.9 points after never contributing fewer than 21.5 per game in his first six seasons. Displeased with a reduced role, Thompson asked for a trade.
The Seattle SuperSonics decided to gamble on a player who only four years earlier had scored more points in a single game than any player not named Wilt Chamberlain. On June 16, 1982, as it became clear Thompson was on his way out of town, the Denver Post ran a series of stories detailing Thompson’s addiction.
“Nugget Star’s Use of Cocaine Disclosed,” the newspaper’s above-the-fold headline on A1 read.
In April 1987, Thompson involuntarily checked into the North Rehabilitation Center in Seattle. By that time, he’d squandered his money. His basketball career was over. The death knell was a gruesome knee injury he suffered falling down the staircase of Studio 54. He had recently been arrested for shoving his wife in a domestic dispute and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. Thompson ended up at the detention and rehab center instead of jail after the pastor of a local megachurch, Doug Murren, went to bat for him in front of a judge.
Meanwhile, Erving was wrapping up one of the most celebrated careers in professional basketball history. At halftime of his final game in Philadelphia, Erving walked out to the court where he was honored in front of the home crowd and asked to reflect on his 16-year career. The broadcaster interviewing Erving asked who his toughest opponents were. The first name out of his mouth? David Thompson.
Thompson watched this unfold with about 30 other patients inside the game room at the rehab facility. The entire room broke out in applause as Erving mentioned his old rival.
“It kind of hit home and really helped me turn myself around,” Thompson said. “He was on TV, and here I was in jail going through this situation. That kind of helped me as far as me wanting to get my life back on track. You kind of realize that you’ve got self worth.”
In that moment, Thompson took his first steps toward ending the cycle that cost him his career and fortune. Erving’s shoutout awakened some long-dormant part of him that made him realize who he was before alcohol and cocaine transformed him. It also stoked something inside of him that helped him imagine who he could become without his vices.
“It made me want to prove myself,” Thompson said, “and I was able to do that.”
Thompson was determined to stop allowing his mistakes to compound. He stayed for two months at North Rehabilitation Center, then completed the rest of his sentence at Issaquah City Jail. Inside, he cracked open the Bible and rediscovered the Christian faith he’d abandoned.
After so many years in a downward spiral, Thompson was finally ready to heal…”
What Became Of Nuggets Star David Thompson After Injuries And Cocaine Derailed His Path To All-Time NBA Greatness
Before addiction sapped his ability, the Denver Nuggets basketball legend nicknamed “Skywalker,” David Thompson, helped us realize what was possible on the basketball court.
www.cpr.org
Spud Webb PG NC State ATL, SAC, MIN, ORL 1985-1998 7-13-1963 59 YOA
Spud Webb: The Story Of The Shortest Slam Dunk Champion (1-12-2022)
Chicago Tribune: SPUD WEBB GETS SHOT AT BECOMING A BIG MAN (2-04-1990)
“Since coming into the league in 1985 and averaging just 15 minutes per game, Anthony ''Spud'' Webb has been viewed by some as more of a novelty, a cute little sideshow, than a legitimate National Basketball Association player.
At 5 feet 7 inches, 135 pounds, he looks more like an arena ball boy than a typical player in the NBA, where the average size is 6-7, 215.
'When I had a bad game, it was always because I was too small. If I had a good game, it was `look at what the little guy did.` It`s always been that way. You can`t change people`s minds when you only play a few minutes,'' Webb said. ''Now, maybe I can change that.''
Webb, in his fifth NBA season with the Atlanta Hawks, now has the chance to dispel the belief that he never would be more than a reserve who is used only for brief spurts, where his quickness can overcome his lack of size.
With starter Doc Rivers indefinitely sidelined with a herniated disc in his lower back, Webb is the starting point guard on a team that has struggled to play to its potential in recent years.
On a team loaded with talented big men (the Hawks have seven players 6-8 or taller), the littlest one may be the most important.
'He`s the man now,'' Hawks coach Mike Fratello said. ''He`s the one who has to pull it all together for us to make it work. It`s a great chance for him.''
Webb, who averaged 15 minutes, 3.9 points and 3.5 assists a game last season, has been averaging 35 minutes, 15 points and 8 assists since Rivers last played on Jan. 19. In the victory over Miami last Saturday, Webb had 20 points and six assists, frustrating the Magic`s trio of point guards.
''I`ve been waiting a long time to be a starter in this league, so this is the first real opportunity I`ve had to show I can be a complete basketball player,'' he said. ''It`s an opportunity that I`ve got to take advantage of. There probably are a lot of people who don`t think I can do it, but I`ve proved them wrong before.''
Webb originally was given little chance of making the NBA after two years at Midland (Tex.) Junior College and two at North Carolina State.
He was drafted in the fourth round by the Detroit Pistons (the 87th player chosen), and subsequently released. The Hawks, needing a backup point guard, signed him and liked the quickness he provided.
''I think I was the only one who totally believed in me as a player,''
Webb said. ''People still seem surprised when I have a good game. But I`ve always been confident in my abilities. I`m confident now that I can take my career to the next level.''
Although Webb is not the shortest player in the NBA, he is the slightest at 135 pounds. Muggsy Bogues of the Charlotte Hornets is only 5-4, and Greg Grant of Phoenix also is 5-7, but both are heavier than Webb.
''There are things I can do that can help us become a better team, like push the ball up the court, hit the open shot and play some defense,'' Webb said. ''But the point guard in our system is not supposed to stand out. He`s supposed to get the ball to the right spots. I can do that.''
Webb could be the starter for quite some time. Rivers, who was placed on the injured list Jan. 26, could be out for as little as three weeks and as much as the entire season, depending upon the treatment used on his back.
''For me, moving into the starting lineup isn`t that much different,''
Webb said. ''I`ve always thought I produced in the minutes I played. Now I just have to do it for 40 minutes instead of 15.''
SPUD WEBB GETS SHOT AT BECOMING A BIG MAN
Since coming into the league in 1985 and averaging just 15 minutes per game, Anthony ”Spud” Webb has been viewed by some as more of a novelty, a cute little sideshow, than a legitimate …
www.chicagotribune.com
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