San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
DeBusk inspired Thompson
their three sons.
On Wednesday, their middle son, Klay, will honor DeBusk at the Coaching Corps Game Changers Awards. The annual event supports the Coaching Corps’ mission to provide high-quality coaching to low-income youth. The ceremony, which will air on NBC Sports Bay Area next Sunday, features several elite athletes who have selected a mentor from their past to honor.
“He ran a great program and had a great passion for basketball and that obviously wore off on me,” Klay Thompson said of DeBusk.
So much so that Klay believes he, too, would like to work as a high school coach when his playing days are over.
“I definitely want to help out with the youth,” he said. “With high schoolers — you get them when they’re young and impressionable and steer them the right way. That sounds appealing to me.
“I definitely give Coach DeBusk a lot of credit,” Klay said. “He ran a tight ship, and you need that when you’re a teenager. He taught me how to thrive within the team concept. He ran advanced offensive and defensive schemes that prepared me for college and beyond.” Mychal Thompson said one of the hardest things he ever had to do was uproot his three boys from their life in Oregon, when he moved back to Southern California to take a radio job with the Lakers, with whom he won two championships. He wanted to make sure they were in a good school, with some friends that they knew, with a good basketball program. Santa Margarita checked all the boxes.
When DeBusk met the future Warriors All-Star guard, Klay was 14 and spoke in two- or threeword sentences.
“He was very quiet, very shy,” DeBusk said. “He and his brothers were all really good kids.”
Despite his basketball pedigree, Klay didn’t leapfrog anyone. DeBusk started the 14-year-old on the freshman team. Klay thinks it was a good experience for him.
“Definitely — it made me be the guy on the freshman team,” he said. “I had fun playing with kids my age.”
In those years, DeBusk never dreamed he was coaching a future NBA champion, All-Star and Olympic gold medalist.
“No, I was just trying to get him and his teammates ready for success at the next level,” DeBusk said. “I told my staff, we’re doing these kids an injustice if we don’t establish a fundamental foundation.”
To that end, DeBusk was often on Klay about his defense.
“I learned a ton about team defense,” Klay said. “He always harped that it was 50 percent of the game and the best players always compete on both ends.”
Now Thompson draws the toughest defensive assignment most nights with the Warriors.
“Klay is the Klay he is today because of Coach DeBusk,” Mychal said. “He taught him the fundamentals.”
DeBusk has since retired and is on the selection committee for the California Interscholastic Federation. He coached all three Thompson boys and made a point of not treating them differently than his other players.
“He didn’t treat anyone with favoritism,” Klay said.
DeBusk’s relationship with the Thompsons wasn’t different than other parents — if anything, it was a bit easier.
During Klay’s senior year, when the team was rolling to a 17-1 record, another parent asked DeBusk out to lunch so they could “talk about the offense.” DeBusk declined, letting the father know that if he was going to talk offense with any parent, it would probably be Mychal Thompson.
“If all parents were like Julie and Mychal Thompson, what a peachy job this would be,” DeBusk said.
Mychal usually sat in the stands and videotaped Klay’s games.
“I saw that Klay was in such a good situation,” he said. “I just stayed away.”
Klay credits DeBusk for helping him be patient through the recruiting process. Unlike some of his teammates, he didn’t get much notice until later in high school. Though Notre Dame and Michigan were interested, Thompson chose Tony Bennett’s program at Washington State.
“I had aspirations to play in the Pac-10,” he said.
Bennett used to call DeBusk to check in on Thompson. When DeBusk would tell him about the offensive fireworks, Bennett would say, “We know he can shoot, but can he defend?” DeBusk made sure those messages were passed along.
By the time he committed, Klay had evolved into a team leader, had found his voice, was playing unselfish offense, hard defense and was leading his team to a state championship at Arco Arena in Sacramento.
“I cherish those moments,” he said. “Playing for your team and community.”
Though he always had his successful NBA father as a role model, he knows that having another coach was instrumental in his development.
“One hundred percent, it helps to have another voice,” Klay said.
For DeBusk, seeing his former player reach basketball’s heights has been amazing.
“At first it was surreal,” he said. “But now, nothing Klay does surprises me.”
Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion @sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion
Warriors 127, Kings 123