LaSalle Thompson

LaSalle Thompson
Personal information
Born (1961-06-23) June 23, 1961
Cincinnati, Ohio
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Listed weight 245 lb (111 kg)
Career information
High school Withrow (Cincinnati, Ohio)
College Texas (1979–1982)
NBA draft 1982 / Round: 1 / Pick: 5th overall
Selected by the Kansas City Kings
Playing career 1981–1997
Position Center
Number 41
Career history
As player:
19821989 Kansas City / Sacramento Kings
1989–1995 Indiana Pacers
1996 Philadelphia 76ers
1996–1997 Denver Nuggets
1997 Indiana Pacers
As coach:
2000–2001 San Diego Wildfire (ABA)
Career highlights and awards
  • 2× First-team All-SWC (1981–1982)
Career NBA statistics
Points 7,806 (7.9 ppg)
Rebounds 6,689 (6.8 rpg)
Blocks 972 (1.0 bpg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

LaSalle Thompson III (born June 23, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player, who spent most of his 15-year career with the Kansas City/Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers. The 6'10", 245-pound Thompson spent time at both the center and power forward positions during his playing career. He later served as an assistant coach for the Charlotte Bobcats, during head coach Larry Brown's tenure.

Playing career

College

Nicknamed "Tank", Thompson finished his career at Texas as the school's all-time leader in rebounds with 1,027, despite the fact he played only three years. The record would stand for 21 years until it was broken by James Thomas in 2004.

Sacramento Kings

Thompson was drafted by the Kings with the fifth overall pick in the 1982 NBA draft, making him the highest Texas player taken until LaMarcus Aldridge was selected second overall in 2006. In 1989–1990, he averaging 13.9 points and 9.4 rebounds per game while spending a half-season in Sacramento and the other half in Indiana.

Indiana Pacers

A regular starter for most of the first part of his career, in 1992–1993 Thompson moved to a role as the tough-nosed veteran off the bench, as Rik Smits and Dale Davis started every game in which they played. Thompson was a key reserve on the first Pacers team to reach the Eastern Conference Finals series, in 1993–1994.

Philadelphia 76ers and Denver Nuggets

After the 1994–1995 season, Thompson signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, playing there for a year before going to the Denver Nuggets.

Return to the Pacers

He ended his career with nine more games in a Pacers uniform, following the trade-deadline deal that also brought Mark Jackson back to Indiana.[1]

Post-NBA career

Thompson served a stint as general manager and head coach of the San Diego Wildfire in the American Basketball Association in the 2000–01 season, which would be the only season of the Wildfire's existence.

Currently, he is co-owner of Prime Time Motors, an automobile sales firm in California.

On May 30, 2008, Thompson accepted an offer from Larry Brown and the Charlotte Bobcats to become an assistant coach.

Has one son[2] (Nickolas) who plays basketball at Jonesboro High School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and one daughter (Ruby) who plays volleyball for Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois, and club at Sports Performance Volleyball Club.

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.