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.
