- Billy Thompson (basketball)
William (Billy) Stansbury Thompson (born
December 1 1963 inCamden, New Jersey ) is a retired American professionalbasketball player in the NBA. He spent a 5-year career with theLos Angeles Lakers andMiami Heat , and registered one minute of court time with theGolden State Warriors in 1991.Thompson played competitive basketball at Camden High School. [Strauss, Robert. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E5DE103EF930A25751C0A9669C8B63 "IN PERSON; Hoop Dreams Revisit Camden"] , "
The New York Times ",February 13 ,2000 . AccessedApril 6 ,2008 . "Legends have grown up around its stars, from the Sunkett brothers and Itchy Smith in the 1960's to Billy Thompson and Milt Wagner, teammates in the early 1980's, both of whom went on to play for the Los Angeles Lakers.]Thompson, a 6' 7"
small forward from theUniversity of Louisville , where in his senior season he was part of the Cardinals squad that won the 1986 NCAA Championship. He was selected 19th overall in the1986 NBA Draft by theAtlanta Hawks but was part of a draft-day trade sending him to theLos Angeles Lakers , where he was a reserve member of the Lakers teams that won back-to-back NBA Championships in 1986-87 and 1987-88. He was then left unprotected in the 1988 NBAexpansion draft and was selected by theMiami Heat , where he was a starter for the Heat's inuagural game and averaged 10.8 points per game in Miami's expansion season. As a part-time starter in 1989-90, Thompson averaged 11 points per game.Following his NBA career Thompson went to play in Israel forHapoel Jerusalem B.C. . Along with Israeli starAdi Gordon Thompson led Hapoel to two State Cup titles. He also played for Fenerbahçe inTurkey .Having won an NCAA championship his final year with Louisville in 1986 and an NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1987, Thompson is only one of only a very few players in basketball history to win an NCAA championship and an NBA Championship in consecutive years, some others being
Bill Russell (University of San Francisco 1956,Boston Celtics 1957),Henry Bibby (UCLA 1972,New York Knicks 1973) and Earvin Johnson (Michigan State 1979,Los Angeles Lakers 1980).References
External links
* [http://www.basketballreference.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=THOMPBI01 College & NBA stats] @ basketballreference.comhttp://www.jpproclaim.org/
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.