Mychal George Thompson (born Michael George Thompson on January 30, 1955, in Nassau, Bahamas) is a retired National Basketball Association player who was the #1 pick in the 1978 NBA Draft. Thompson (6' 10", 226 lbs) played both the power forward and center positions and played for the Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.
Thompson was born in the Bahamas, but moved to the United States as a youth, playing high school ball in Miami, Florida. He then attended the University of Minnesota where he had an impressive collegiate career; impressive enough that the Trail Blazers made him the number one pick in the 1978 NBA Draft, the first foreign-born player to be selected at that position.
Thompson was a fixture in the Portland lineup for eight years (though one season was missed due to injury), where he started at both power forward and center positions. He was named to the 1979 All-Rookie team, and had his statistically best season in 1981-1982, where he averaged over 20 points and 11 rebounds per game. In the 1986 off-season, Thompson was traded to the Spurs in exchange for center/forward Steve Johnson.
Thompson played only half a season with the Spurs, before he was traded again, this time to Los Angeles for center/forward Frank Brickowski, center Petur Gudmundsson and a 1990 first-round draft choice. He was brought to the Lakers in February 1987 to back up Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and defend Boston Celtics forward Kevin McHale, against whom he played great defense. Interestingly enough, this gave the Lakers a team that had four players who were overall #1 selections in the NBA draft, the others being Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and James Worthy. Of those four, Thompson is the only one not enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Thompson helped the Lakers win consecutive titles in 1987 and 1988, and he retired in 1991. Mychal is currently employed as the Lakers radio color commentator. He was a co-host on the "Loose Cannons" radio show on KLAC AM570 in Los Angeles but was let go recently, because Lakers broadcasts are moving from AM570 to ESPN AM710 for the 2009-10 season. He is now a co-host on the "LA Sports Live" radio show on ESPN AM710 with Andrew Siciliano[1].
His oldest son, Mychel, is currently on the Pepperdine University men's basketball team; his middle son, Klay, is currently on the Washington State University men's basketball team; and his youngest son, Trayce, has signed a scholarship offer to play baseball for UCLA. Trayce was also drafted 61st overall in the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft by the Chicago White Sox.
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