Following the death of legendary Georgetown head coach John Thompson Jr. on Sunday, UNC head coach Roy Williams issued a statement on the loss of his fellow Hall-of-Famer.

“It’s almost impossible to put into words what Coach Thompson meant to our game and to me personally,” Williams said. “Losing him is just really hard.  He is one of the giants of our game and college athletics period. I had the utmost respect for him. He was kind enough to put me under his wing and advised me many times throughout my career.”

As a head coach, Williams never went head-to-head with Thompson. He did suffer a 96-84 overtime loss defeat in his only career game against Georgetown in the 2007 Elite Eight. The Hoyas were coached that day by Thompson’s son, John Thompson III.

Williams was an assistant at UNC under Dean Smith, however, when the Tar Heels defeated Thompson’s Hoyas in the 1982 NCAA Championship Game.

“Without a doubt he was one of Dean Smith’s closest friends,” Williams said. “They respected one another so much. I’ll never forget at Coach Smith’s funeral, Coach Thompson arrived two hours early and sat quietly by himself in a pew.

“Even though he wasn’t in great health at the time, it was important for him to be here for the service, just as it was when Coach Smith retired and Coach Thompson came to Chapel Hill for the press conference,” Williams added. “He would check in on Coach Smith, which meant so much to Coach Smith’s family and all of us who knew and loved him.”

Thompson would go on to win the 1984 NCAA Championship behind junior center Patrick Ewing just two years after losing to Smith’s Tar Heels. He also coached the United States to a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, and had previously won two NBA championships as a player with the Boston Celtics in 1965 and 1966.

The Georgetown job was presented to Thompson in 1972 after a successful stint at St. Anthony High School in Washington D.C. He would go on to coach the Hoyas through the 1998-99 season, when he retired with a career record of 596-239.

Many of his former players have credited Thompson for the way he cared about them and carried himself as a father figure–including NBA Hall-of-Famer Allen Iverson, who said Thompson saved his life by recruiting him to Georgetown.

“If you played for Big John you gained a lot as a basketball player, but you gained so much more as a man,” Williams said. “It wasn’t just about basketball; it was about education and contributing to the world. I could go on and on, but he was truly a great man who just happened to be a basketball coach, and a great one at that.”

Editor’s note: 97.9 The Hill will air the 1982 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game between UNC and Georgetown on Wednesday from 8 p.m. until 10 p.m.

Photo via Todd Melet

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