David Thompson To Host The Induction Of Michael Jordan Into Hall Of Fame

Michael Jordan surprised many of his fans when he chose David Thompson over Phil Jackson (former NBA coach) and Dean Smith (former college coach) as host to the NBA Basketball Hall of Fame’s induction. David Thompson is a former North Carolina NBA player and is also known as the “Skywalker”.
Phil Jackson and Dean Smith were the favorites in the race for the host to the induction of the Hall of Fame. They were very close to Jordan and had also greatly influenced his career, but even so Jordon opted for David Thompson. According to Jordan, Thompson had always been his role model in athletics and he claims that he wouldn’t have scaled the heights that he has if it weren’t for the inspiration that was instilled in him by Thompson. In 1981, on his arrival at Chapel Hill, Jordan himself admitted, “Any time David Thompson was on television, I was glued to that screen.”
Thompson himself was quite surprised by Jordan’s announcement and “wow” was the only way by which he could express his surprise. David Thompson was a North Carolina State player. He was the lone player among the former NC State college players to get his number retire along with him. Thompson’s 48 inch vertical leap and securing 73 points individually in a single game, which is the third highest in NBA, had earned him the nickname “Skywalker”.
In the history of ACC, Thompson is still rated as the top player of all times. Thompson was idolized by Jordan and Thompson in return idolized Charlie Scott. Thompson’s says of Scott, “I always pretended to be Charlie Scott when I was out practicing by myself. If he made a shot, I wanted to make it the same way.”