SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- Little ever came easy for John Thompson.
His outspoken views on minority access challenged the basketball world. His unrelenting high standards sometimes frustrated his friends. He even repeated sixth grade.So it was perhaps no shock that it took the retired Georgetown coach three tries to make the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Finally, Thompson is entering the Springfield shrine tonight with former Boston Celtics star Kevin McHale, Cleveland Cavaliers executive Wayne Embry, women's college coach Billie Moore and the late NBA pioneer and owner Fred Zollner.
"I never thought that he was arrogant. I never thought that he was difficult. He challenged you," said Georgetown coach Craig Esherick, who played for Thompson and later served as his assistant.
But then he added, "There were some days I left the court as a player not thinking good thoughts about him."
A big man with a husky voice and booming laugh, Thompson turned into a national fixture in his 27 seasons at Georgetown. Stalking courtside with a towel habitually draped over his shoulder, he watched his teams make 24 straight postseason appearances and three NCAA Final Fours. When his team won the national championship in 1984, he became the first black coach with that title.
Yet colleagues say Thompson always demanded that his players be their best both on court and in class.
"He was a tremendously demanding educator," said Bill Shapland, a 15-year staffer. "He was not interested in giving you a lot of excuses or wiggle room for not being the best you can be."
Thompson also made demands of the basketball world, pushing for more and better chances for minorities. He endured racial taunts when he first fielded a predominantly black team at Georgetown. He later boycotted two games in 1989 to protest NCAA Proposition 42, saying its financial limits hurt minority athletes.
McHale, who formed a formidable frontcourt with Larry Bird and Robert Parish, also set sky-high standards, but mainly for himself. In the 1987 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, McHale's right foot was so badly hurt that he was said to use a patio chair as a walker when he was off court.
"With all that pain, we don't want you to play," his coach, K.C. Jones, recalls telling him. "He said, 'I'm doing this!' "
The Celtics lost in six games anyway, and McHale underwent surgery. He was hobbled by foot and ankle injuries until retiring in 1993.
But during 13 seasons with Boston, McHale played on championship teams in 1981, 1984 and 1986. "He was a winner. We both had the same desire to win," said Bird, who now coaches the Indiana Pacers.
A Minnesota boy with an easygoing exterior, McHale grew to a long-limbed 6-foot-10. He came to Boston in 1980 as the sixth man.
"McHale was a big, gangly kid who looked like a stand-in for the Frankenstein monster when he first showed up. But he had this indomitable will to win," said Tom Heinsohn, the Celtics player and coach of an earlier era.
McHale added a jump hook and fadeaway jumper to his expanding offensive repertoire. "Those two shots were almost unstoppable," Parish said Thursday.
McHale eventually transformed himself into one of the league's most feared offensive threats, averaging 55 percent from the floor during his career.
The defense had to swarm on him, opening the court for his imposing teammates.