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68. David Thompson
David Thompson could have had a much greater NBA career than he did, but injuries and personal problems curtailed it after just 9 years. Yet in the 9 years he managed to make a huge impact on the game and earn his place in the hall-of-fame.
Thompson attended North Carolina State University where he lead the Wolf Pack in scoring all three of his varsity seasons. In his freshman season he lead the freshman team with 36 points a game. He lead the Wolf Pack to the 1974 NCAA title even beating juggernaut UCLA in the process. He graduated in 1975 having played in 86 career games and owning averages of 27 points and 8 rebounds.
The Atlanta Hawks and Denver Nuggets both drafted Thompson #1 overall in the NBA and ABA drafts. Thompson decided to sigh with the Nuggets. He lead the Nuggets in scoring his rookie season with 26 points per game and helped them get the best record in the ABA that year. He also helped lead them to the ABA finals where they lost to the Nets. For his efforts he was named ABA rookie of the year.
The Nuggets joined the NBA the following season and Thompson kept up his numbers, which was unusual for players going from the ABA to the NBA. Thompson averaged a career high 27 points a game in 1978 and helped the Nuggets make their deepest playoff run of their early NBA existence. However, that would sadly be the climax for Thompson’s career.
Starting in the 78-79 many in the Nuggets organization thought there was something wrong with Thompson. His personality changed and his quality of play slipped. The following season he missed significant time with an injury and other personal problems. He, however, continued to be considered one of the games best players and in 1982 was given a 4 million dollar contract by the Seattle Sonics. The 4 million dollar contract was to that point the highest paid deal any NBA player had signed.
The contract turned out to be a horrible move by Seattle. Thompson never regained his former star status and after just two seasons hurt his knee leaving a party in New York and his NBA career was over.
Thompson played just 592 career games and had averages of 23 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. He was named to the hall-of-fame in 1996.
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