TNT's “Inside the NBA” crew of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O'Neal each threw a white towel over their right shoulders on Monday night's telecast in honor of John Thompson Jr.

The legendary former Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball coach, who died Sunday at 78, wore his trademark white towel during his days intensely commanding (and sweating all over) the sideline.

“John Thompson wanted to create great Black men,” Barkley said. “And I always admired him for that.”

 

 

Thompson's Hoyas were one of the most dominant and iconic teams in college hoops during the heyday of the 1980s Big East. He led Georgetown to three Final Fours and broke barriers when he became the first Black head coach to win a Division I Men's Basketball championship in 1984.

Off the court, Thompson was a larger-than-life (and literally huge) figure in the Black community and beyond. He molded men as much as hoopers, including Hall of Fame centers Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, and Alonzo Mourning.

“Three great men,” Barkley said about the trio of prolific centers. “Not just great basketball players, but great men.”

“There's only two basketball coaches..that when you talk to their former players, they say ‘He doesn't talk to us about basketball players, he talks to us about being great men,'” Barkley said. “John Thompson was first, and Dean Smith was second.”

In 1993, Thompson offered Allen Iverson a place on the Georgetown campus. Iverson had served four months in jail after he was dubiously prosecuted and persecuted for his role in a bowling alley skirmish in Virginia ahead of his senior year in high school.

Additionally, the principled Thompson boldly walked out of a 1989 game against Boston College in protest of Prop 48, which restricted academically ineligible freshmen from receiving scholarships. Thompson believed the measure targeted people from underprivileged communities.

Thompson coached the Hoyas from 1972 until 1999—the same year he was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Tributes to Thompson from around the basketball world came pouring in upon news of his passing.

RIP to “Big John” — a pioneer.