The decision Georgetown had to make, the one it didn’t want to make, the one it wished for patience and tradition and a family’s coaching magic to absolve, came rumbling down Thursday afternoon. In a humble and almost apologetic statement, Georgetown University President Jack DeGioia parted ways with men’s basketball Coach John Thompson III, separating from a legacy that has uplifted and defined the program for 45 years.
To announce the thorny conclusion to an awkward situation, DeGioia used overwrought phrases such as “profound regret” and “deep appreciation” while explaining the dismissal of the son of John Thompson Jr., the son who made Georgetown hoops so glamorous that eight NCAA Tournament appearances in the past 13 years felt shabby. It was a kind goodbye, a softer way to fire someone, which is an appropriate way to treat one of the most influential families in college basketball history.
But it was a divorce nonetheless, and it signifies that the school, after defiantly ignoring the issue for most of this decline, finally made a harsh admission: To make an effort to be Georgetown again – successful, feared, relevant – it had to cut ties with the family that made it Georgetown.
Goodbye, Hoya Paranoia. Goodbye, Hoya nostalgia, too.
Over the past two seasons, the need for change had become painfully urgent. Thompson posted back-to-back losing seasons; no Georgetown coach had done that since John Magee, the man that Big John replaced in 1972. John Thompson III hadn’t advanced beyond the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2007, the year he led Georgetown to the Final Four. For the past 10 years, he had endured six NCAA tourney losses to double-digit seeds, two unimpressive NIT seasons and two losing campaigns. If you removed the names “Thompson” and “Georgetown” and simply said that the coach of a top-15 college basketball program had produced those results, you would have concluded that the school had been excessively fair or foolishly complacent to keep its coach this long.
But these decisions are made in reality, not in theory, and the Georgetown situation was different from any other in major college sports. The Hoyas weren’t going to be flippant about the Thompson legacy. Big John’s bronze statue now stands near the main entrance to a fabulous new practice facility bearing his name. For every home game, he sits on the baseline near Georgetown’s bench at Verizon Center. He is the program’s architect, and for 40 of the past 45 years, a Thompson has coached the team. In the 5½ leftover years, a longtime Thompson Jr. assistant, Craig Escherick, ran the show between 1998-2004.
Unless Patrick Ewing becomes the next Georgetown coach, the program figures to break from nearly a half-century of Thompson influence. Ewing, 54, has been an NBA assistant coach for the past 15 years. He should be a candidate. But he’s not the best fit, despite his status as the greatest of all Georgetown legends, because he doesn’t have college coaching experience. As much as Ewing understands the school and has the reputation and personality to be a good recruiter, the job would require a significant adjustment that Ewing might not want to make.
It has been 32 years since Ewing last played at Georgetown. If it were difficult to watch Big John’s son struggle at the end, what would the environment be like if Ewing couldn’t revive a program longing for the past and conflicting with current students and young alums who are ready for the future? And now that DeGioia has taken a bold step and made a decision in the best interest of the program and not just its architect, why would he then fall back and hire a relic from Big John’s past?
This is an opportunity for Georgetown to redirect the program. It shouldn’t mean making a clean break from Thompson Jr. There are plenty of legendary coaches who retire and remain connected to the program. Denny Crum is still around Louisville. Lute Olson is still around Arizona. Before his death in 2010, John Wooden remained a fixture at UCLA. Thompson Jr. should always think of Georgetown as home. But there’s a difference between being a presence and helping to run the program. This coaching hire should lead to a new dominant voice at Georgetown.
Big John could accept that, as long as the new coach is legit. He’s 75. He understands mortality. He knows that legacies are passed on, and the best of them aren’t easily destroyed. His lasting impact is connected to another Georgetown basketball rebuild. Otherwise, what he created will be just one of those programs that used to be good and that people barely remember.
If this is the end of the Thompson family era, it’s bittersweet. You may have craved change. You may have screamed for change with “Fire Thompson!” chants. But it’s still possible to be saddened by this.
The family’s Georgetown resume is incredible and possibly incomparable: 28 combined NCAA Tournament appearances, four combined Final Fours, a 1984 national championship, countless lives changed. The year daddy won it all, Thompson III was a senior All-Met basketball player for Gonzaga High before going to Princeton. Twenty years later, he was hired to revive the program that his father built.
Thompson III did that. He inherited a losing team and went to the Final Four in three seasons. It was one of those cute stories that he couldn’t really explain or appreciate in the moment. And then it got complicated. And weird. And now, it’s over.
For all the pride Thompson III took in maintaining the program, he also experienced pain as the losses mounted. Imagine the inner conflict knowing that you’re charged with stopping the slippage of not just any elite program, but your father’s elite program. Despite the disappointment, you have to wonder how much relief Thompson III feels now. He leaves with his integrity intact. He’s a classy man. He’s only 51. He’ll be back.
“Georgetown basketball has been a part of my life since 1972, which makes this moment even more impactful,” he said in a statement, “but I look forward to my next chapter.”
The next chapter. The Thompson shadow is vast, which is why you’re shocked that the university actually saw the light. The improbable – firing Big John’s son – had become inevitable. On Thursday, it became official.
At long last, everyone can look forward.