Thompson likened his basketball coaching style to directing a play: „I’m going to pick the script, and I’m going to give them their …
Thompson likened his basketball coaching style to directing a play: „I’m going to pick the script, and I’m going to give them their roles. They’re the actors. Their job is to learn those roles — that’s what practice is about. When we go out on the court, that’s our stage. Out there, they’re supposed to perform as we practiced. I don’t want anybody making up new lines, putting on their own act.“ Like other legendary coaches, Thompson used his prowess as a leader to turn a failing program around. The season before he was hired in 1972, Georgetown had won just three games, and it had made just one appearance in a championship game, all the way back in 1943. Within a decade, Thompson transformed the losing team to a national contender, reaching the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight by 1980, and becoming a powerhouse in 1981 after recruiting basketball great Patrick Ewing. Thompson attributed his team’s success to mixing both talent with work ethic. „Without talent, all the character in the world won’t do it, but talent alone isn’t enough,“ he said. „There are great individuals and teams with lots of talent who don’t win.“ Besides winning, he distinguished himself as a leader and mentor to many young men, including Patrick Ewing, his great center from the 1980s and now his successor as Georgetown coach. An imposing 6’10“ himself, he specialized in centers, coaching both Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning after Ewing, although the diminutive point guard Allen Iverson also came through his program. John Thompson once met with a drug dealer who had befriended several of his players, and told him to stop coming to meet them. „We cannot close ourselves off from the whole of society,“ he said of the meeting.
