Thompson was a force under the boards

Billy Thompson, boys' basketball player of the century, Modern Era Page 2

Courier-Post All-Century
Trying to select a Player of the Modern Era in South Jersey high school boys' basketball is almost as impossible as it is to select the winning Pick Six lottery numbers.

There were so many good players on so many good teams.

But it had to be done. And after much deliberation, former Camden great Billy Thompson has been selected by the Courier-Post as the All-Century Player of the Modern Era.

Thompson, a 6-foot-8 center, made an impact on the Camden program as soon as he arrived on the scene in 1980.

He was an articulate scholar-athlete and played the game in appropriate fashion.

Thompson scored 1,756 career points and was a demon under the boards, although points were the only statistic kept by the school.

Camden was 79-8 during Thompson's career with teams that included such outstanding performers as Milt Wagner and Kevin Walls.

When Thompson graduated from Camden, he followed Wagner to the University of Louisville and helped the Cardinals with an NCAA Championship in 1986.

Then it was on to the NBA and the Los Angeles Lakers, where he was a member of two World Championship teams. He had come full cycle from a freshman at Sterling to a three-year career at Camden, to Louisville, and then to the NBA. It doesn't get any better than that.

But it did. Thompson is now an ordained minister with a congregation in a Miami suburb.

What was most impressive with Thompson was the regard in which he was held by opposing coaches, many of them forced into the ``L'' column by one of his typical performances.