TRIBUTE: Klay Thompson’s high school coach speaks about star in Bay Area awards show airing tonight.
Thompson credits high school coach for pushing him to improve his game
When Klay Thompson’s high school coach learned he would be making a speech in honor of the Warriors’ star, he had a simple reaction.
“I hope I don’t sound like an idiot,” Jerry DeBusk said. “I want to do justice to him. I’m nervous about it. I’m still overwhelmed about it.”
DeBusk’s speech, along with sevp.m.) eral others, will air tonight (7 on NBC Sports Bay Area. The lineup for the fifth annual Coaching Corps Game Changer Awards also included the coaches selected by five other Bay Area stars: the Giants’ Pablo Sandoval (Bruce Bochy); 49ers wide receiver Marquis Goodwin (Richard McCroan, his high school coach); A’s shortstop Marcus Semien (Ron Washington); former Raider Charles Woodson (Vance Bedford, his college assistant coach); Cal basat ketball player Kristine Anigwe (coach Lindsay Gottlieb).
DeBusk, 73, has seen Thompson develop far beyond basketball. Or, as he often says to his wife, when watching him speak press conference: “God, look at him. He’s so articulate. He’s speaking with ease.” DeBusk said Thompson “spoke in two or three-word sentences as a freshman and sophomore.”
In 2008, they won a state championship together at Santa Margarita Catholic High in Orange County.
As a senior, in 2008, Thompson led Santa Margarita Catholic to a 30-5 record and a Division III state championship. He won Division III State Player of the Year honors. And he
scored 37 points with a state final-record seven 3-pointers in the championship game against Sacramento. Two years ago, Santa Margarita retired Thompson’s No. 1 jersey.
Therefore, every Thompson 3-pointer since then partly traces back
to DeBusk’s system that featured college sets. Every one of Thompson’s defensive stops partly stems from DeBusk stressing for Thompson to become a two-way player. Thompson’s strong work habits partly reflect DeBusk’s demanding expectations.
“He’s very important for Klay’s performance and growth in the game. He taught Klay the fundamentals,” said Mychal Thompson, Klay’s father and a former NBA player. “He understands the game so well because of the great coaching and teaching from Coach DeBusk.”
DeBusk argued that only happened for the same reason Warriors coach Steve Kerr often describes Klay as “no maintenance.”
“It’s pretty easy when you have good players,” said DeBusk, who has since retired and works on the selection committee for the California Interscholastic Federation. “It would be harder to shape somebody who wasn’t very skilled or didn’t have a feel for the game. He was the complete opposite.”
Anytime a coach talked with DeBusk, they wondered what it was like dealing with Mychal Thompson, who had a distinguished 14-year NBA career with the Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.
“Is Mychal a pain to deal with?” coaches would ask DeBusk. “Is he critical of you?”
DeBusk laughed. “If every family were like the Thompsons,” he’d say, “what a peachy job it would be.”
Mychal moved his family from Portland to Los Angeles in 2003 after accepting a job as the Lakers’ color analyst on their flagship radio station. So, Mychal hoped to find both a school that offered a quality education and basketball program for his three sons, Mychel, Klay and Trayce.
Santa Margarita provided both things, but that did not mean Mychal planned to use his NBA background to exert his influence on the program.
“I was just a typical parent, just like everybody else who was supporting the team and the school,” Mychal said. “I didn’t think I deserved any special treatment or thought myself as any more important than any other parent.”
Instead, Mychal attended his sons’ games anytime it did not interfere with his Lakers’ radio duties. Then, he just watched and recorded the games. Mychal’s wife, Julie, also watched and often provided team meals and posted up team spirit signs in the gym. During that time, DeBusk said Mychal never questioned his system, playing time or roles for his three sons. Instead, Mychal told DeBusk, “Coach, I like what you do. You have a good program.”
DeBusk liked hearing those words. They sounded much more pleasant than when one unnamed parent once demanded to DeBusk to have a lunch meeting to discuss his offensive system. DeBusk replied, “If I were to sit down and talk about our offense with anyone, it would be Mychal Thompson; not you.” Mychal never requested a meeting. He allowed DeBusk to coach his sons how he wanted.
“He handled it great. He didn’t treat anybody differently,” Klay said of DeBusk. “He treated everyone pretty much equal. Whether you were the McDonald’s All-American or 15th man on the team as far as playing time, he treated you with respect and he demanded discipline and hard-playing players. That’s been with me ever since.”
That all started for Thompson at age 14. Then, Thompson started his freshman year of high school. And despite his father’s name and intriguing potential as a two-way player, Klay had to play on the freshman team instead of the varsity squad.
That was OK. Thompson just spent that time improving his craft and showing his worth.
“Obviously being in South Orange County, kids can be very spoiled. So to be in there all the time, I showed that I love the game,” Thompson said. “That’s what Jerry respected the most about me — my eagerness to get better.”
DeBusk described Thompson as a “gym rat.” And that’s saying something because DeBusk held 2 ½ hour practices six days a week for 11 months out of the year.
As Mychal recalled about Klay, “he never put the ball down.” When he was not training in the gym or playing pickup games, Thompson would watch television while holding the ball in his hands. Then, Thompson would shoot the ball straight in the air, catch it and repeat the exercise countlessly. At nighttime, Thompson played more pickup basketball at nearby parks.
“He loved all of that,” DeBusk said of Thompson. “I never remember him missing a practice.”
That did not stop DeBusk from demanding more from Thompson.
During Thompson’s sophomore season, DeBusk often spent practices harping on his defensive fundamentals. Then, DeBusk would often stop drills and say to Thompson, “Why don’t you pick up the pace a little bit here. I don’t like the tempo you’re practicing at.” At other times, DeBusk would tell Thompson to improve his defensive stance.
After harping on Thompson during one particular defensive drill, DeBusk turned to one of his assistant coaches and admitted that he prods Thompson too much. “I need to get off his butt,” DeBusk said to an assistant. “He’s better at it than the rest of them. But he’s doing it effortlessly.”
Therefore, DeBusk kept critiquing Thompson, even when Thompson became captain his junior season. Did that ever bother Thompson?
“He could get on my nerves because of conditioning or playing time. But you had to earn it,” Thompson said. “It prepares you for stuff outside of basketball, adversity and everything in life that it comes with. I see where he came from. We needed it, being from Orange County. He did not have any sympathy for us. He thought we were all soft. He really got us into us for that. That’s what we all needed to hear.”
DeBusk likened his coaching to Thompson as a “jockey on a good horse.” So DeBusk often reminded himself, “don’t screw it up, get him out of the gate and let him run and head for home.” Eventually, DeBusk offered Thompson tough love not because DeBusk disliked Thompson’s effort. DeBusk did so because he sensed it fueled Thompson.
So leading into the state championship game, DeBusk relayed quotes attributed to Sacramento’s coach that touted its team having the better backcourt. Thompson proved otherwise with his record-setting performance at the former Arco Arena.
“I still watch the highlights from that game,” Thompson said. “At the time, it was the biggest game of my life. I played in an NBA arena. Shooting well in an NBA arena was a dream come true.”
Long before Thompson achieved that dream, his father predicted he would play in the NBA. Mychal even told Klay about it when he was in junior high. “He thought I was crazy, of course, to look that far ahead. Klay doesn’t like to look that far ahead,” Mychal said.
Neither does DeBusk. He admitted he had no clairvoyance Thompson would ever become one of the NBA’s best shooters ever. When DeBusk coached Thompson, he simply worried about developing him well enough to play for a Division I college.
DeBusk played an instrumental role in making that happen. He stayed in constant contact with Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, Michigan’s John Beilein and Washington State’s Tony Bennett.
“He knew I was going to come out later than a lot of prospects. But he told me to be very patient and not rush it,” Thompson said. “He had a lot of great relationships with coaches. He just gave me great advice. He saw a lot of guys go D-I that could even go higher, but he was there for when I needed him. He was great with coaches and he really had my back in the recruiting process. He never steered me wrong.”
Therefore, DeBusk took Bennett’s concerns about Thompson seriously.
“Jerry, we know he can shoot. But can he guard?” DeBusk recalled Bennett saying. “If he’s coming up here and can’t guard, it’ll be tough for him.”
So in subsequent practices, DeBusk harped on Thompson some more to prepare him for playing with the Cougars.
“You need to work harder on defense,” DeBusk said. “If you think you’re going up there and just shooting 3s, you won’t play.”
Thompson went to Washington State and started all 33 games as a freshman for Bennett. He left after three years as the No. 3 scorer in school history and was drafted by the Warriors with the 11th overall pick. He looks back on eight NBA seasons, four All Star games and three championships and sees DeBusk.
“He was just there from the jump,” Thompson said. “I learned a lot of things back then that I take all the way with me now. That was a great foundation to be laying for great success to come.”