TBT: On The Anniversary Of David Thompson Scoring 73, We Remember His Career

David Thompson‘s time in the Mile High City was one of the most entertaining periods in franchise history. He enjoyed a nine-year career in the league (seven of them with Denver) and he helped bring the Nuggets from the ABA into the NBA. The man dubbed ‘The Skywalker was known for his high vertical, as well as his unfortunate drug use that ultimately led to his demise.

Thompson’s rise to stardom started during his college days at NC State. Besides leading the Wolfpack to a perfect record in 1973, and 30-1 record in 1974 (complete with a National Championship win over UCLA), he is also credited with creating the most exciting play in basketball—the alley-oop pass. Along with teammate Monte Towe and coach Norm Sloan, they pioneered the play to take advantage of Thompson’s unique leaping ability. This all took place during the NCAA’s ban on dunking, so unlike most alley-oop’s of today, these plays had to be finished with a layup as opposed to a dunk.

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During his three years at NC State, Thompson is remembered as one of the all-time greats to ever play in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Notably, he was also a part of one of the greatest games in college basketball history — the 1974 ACC Tournament Championship game against Maryland. He led the Wolfpack over the Terrapins in a dramatic overtime finish. This loss paved the way for the NCAA Tournament to expand the field of participants past just conference champions, due to Maryland missing the tournament despite their high national ranking.

Thompson left his junior year and left quite the legacy as his number 44 jersey is the only jersey that has been retired by NC State. He was the drafted number-one overall by both the NBA and ABA, but he ultimately chose to sign with the Denver Nuggets of the ABA over the Atlanta Hawks, due to Atlanta’s seeming disinterest in him.

During his rookie year, he went head-to-head with the legendary Julius Erving in the first Slam-Dunk Contest, which was the first All-Star weekend type of event, which ultimately turned into the All-Star weekend that we know and love today. Doctor J won after throwing down the first-ever foul line dunk—something never before seen in basketball. However, Thompson still got his as he was named Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game. After the ABA-NBA merger in 1976, the Nuggets were in the NBA and Thompson signed to stay with the team for the foreseeable future.

Thompson went on to enjoy a very exciting career as a Nugget, which saw him make four All-Star games and make a run at the scoring title in 1978. On the last day of the season, he scored 73 points against the Detroit Pistons in an attempt to lock up the title for himself, but George Gervin of the San Antonio Spurs prevented that by scoring 63 points on the same day to keep up his lead. Today is the 37th anniversary of that memorable night.

More history was made by ‘The Skywalker’ in 1978, when he signed a record-breaking $4 million contract (over five years), making him the highest-paid player in the league at that time. Unfortunately, that was the last season Thompson would be the player we had all known and loved. Soon after signing the monster contract, he was moved to the Seattle SuperSonics and his substance abuse took over. For all of those who are not familiar with ‘The Skywalker’, I highly recommend checking out the video below and watching true greatness.

After suffering a horrendous knee injury in 1984 (after falling down the stairs at the infamous Studio 54), his career was essentially over. He attempted a comeback the year after, but it fell short. From there, he further spiraled into a dark lifestyle before finally coming to his senses (thanks to the help of a pastor) and cleaning up his life

Since then, he has been elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame, had his number 33 jersey retired by the Nuggets, went back to NC State to finish his degree in Sociology (in 2004), and was given the immense honor of introducing Michael Jordan at his Hall of Fame enshrinement. Thompson has been credited by Jordan as someone he had always looked up to as a child growing up in North Carolina.

David Thompson is one of the few people who can truly say he has been through hell and back, and he should be the example of how with hard work, anyone can overcome additions. He is a true pioneer of basketball and he deserves every accomplishment that has been awarded to him. After all, it must be pretty cool to be known as the blueprint for the greatest player in NBA history.

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