North Carolina State Basketball Legend Immortalized With Statue
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From the time I could dribble a ball through the end of high school, I was obsessed with the game of basketball. As the son of two native North Carolinians, I was educated early on that the only basketball that mattered was in the ACC. Although we were a Tar Heel house, one name that was always spoken in reverent tones was David Thompson.
Before there was “Air Jordan,” there was “The Skywalker.”
My first memory of Thompson was watching him play with the Denver Nuggets one night as he was destroying my Houston Rockets. I asked Dad who this guy was, and that’s when the legendary tales of Thompson’s prowess began to flow. There are some words in sports that are way overused. One of them is legend. In truth you run across very few athletes who are truly legendary. David Thompson is the real thing. He starred for the Wolfpack from 1972-1975 and is one of only a handful of players two be named National Player of the Year, twice.
This week, North Carolina State honored and immortalized this living legend with a statue of him flying through the air in front of Reynolds Coliseum where he starred. Of the statue, Thompson tells WITN, “It turned out real good. Except they could have had Walton (UCLA’s Bill) up under me. Ally ooping over him but you get the gist of the picture. I think they did a great job. I think what is really good is showing the 44-inch vertical. Levitating in the air. That’s what I did back in the day and that was our signature play.”
North Carolina One of the Top 5 States Producing the Most Pro Basketball Players
Are you working on your basketball skills? If so, you should keep on pushing cause you might have a chance of making it to the big leagues. Everyone enjoys bragging about professional athletes from their hometown or even their home state. North Carolina surely is no different.
Hoop Social conducted a study to determine the best and worst states for basketball players and the results are interesting. Although players may grow up in one place and attend school in another, repping your hometown is always a fan favorite. Of course, North Carolina made the top 5 for states producing the most professional basketball players per capita. Let’s be real here, we have Michael Jordan under our belt, of course, we made the list. Check out the top 20 states producing the most professional basketball players in 2022.
Charlie Nance is the Afternoon Drive co-host (along with his wife) of "The Charlie and Debbie Show" at WSOC, Country 1037 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The couple have been with the radio station since 2006. Charlie has won the prestigious CMA (Country Music Association) Award for Radio Personality of the Year and has been a finalist for the Country Radio Hall of Fame four times. Prior to his time in Charlotte, Charlie (along with Debbie) spent more than a decade hosting successful morning radio shows in Greenville, SC; Augusta, Ga; and Birmingham, Al. As a content creator for Country 1037, Charlie writes about dream lottery windfalls, sports, restaurants and bars, and travel experiences in North and South Carolina.