Originally Posted by
greybeard
I agree with what you say and I didn't mean to imply otherwise. Thompson's jump shot from distance was terrific and breath-taking given his effortless elevation. When a defender got in his grill, Thompson's "go too" game was an equally described pull-up jump shot off the dribble in either direction. He took it all the way when the floor presented a clean path. What I should have said is that Thompson did not look to create off the dribble, with spins, cross-overs, up and under the basket, etc. Hawkins had dazzling moves that he could and did finish in miraculous ways. His imagination and huge hands, among his many other gifts, lead to it. I'm confident that those moves and finishes would have been no different if he had dropped it in. Dunking in those days was not a slam-it-down deal, at least not in the main. Even Wilt slammed it down infrequently, if I am remembering correctly. Same with the Doctor.
Slamming started with Daryl Dawkins' breaking backboards and nearly pulling them down. Rims than were fixed. Dawkins lead to the pull-down rims, to not calling walking, to players "dunking" by pulling down the rim (with a fixed rim those "things" would have shot back to half court and the dunker would have fallen backwards).
By the way, there was a 6 foot guy at Cornell, 1964-1968 (his parents, both school teachers insisted, I shouldn't know why), had a very similar game to Thompson's. Greg Morris jumped with ease, from standing got up with I want to say both elbows over the rim, shot with that type of elevation a very accurate jump shot from pro range, shot with equal accuracy off a pull up, and, like Thompson, did not dance but rather went to the basket linerally and dropped it in. Unlike Thompson, Greg did not play at a powerhouse basketball school, in one of the primier leagues in the country, and with a supporting cast like Thompson's, although the Cornell team's his first two years as a varsity player, Cornell could play with nearly anyone, not night in or night out, and did not go beyond 6 deep with that quality player. As I've mentioned several times here, the year after Kentucky lost to Texas Western in that now lionized national championship game (CCNY's NCAA Championship team had four black starters in 1951, as did Cincinnati's 1962 and 1963 Championship teams that beat Ohio State's team lead by Jerry Lucas, John Havlilhek, Larry Siegfried, and also included Bobby Knight), Cornell went down to Lexington to play essentially the same team. Everyone throught it was a ridiculous joke until Greg dropped 37 on Louie Dampier and Pat Riley and Cornell won by 35.
Am I saying that Greg Morris was David Thompson? No. But to say that David Thompson invented something new, I think is wrong. Connie Hawkins, now there was new.