When I was a little kid, falling in love with basketball, John Thompson (and John Chaney) didn't look, sound, or coach like anyone else. I didn't understand how important that was until I was much older.
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Wilt Chamberlain popularized the idea, "No one roots for Goliath," but Thompson's Hoyas made it cool to want to be the big guy, to want to be in the post like Ewing, 'Zo, Mutombo, and Big O.

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Think what you will of his methods or that he spoke his mind at a time when that was borderline taboo for black authority figures, but he built something from nothing, in a tough place to do it, and did it without anyone rooting for him.

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