Friday, December 14, 2007

Santa Margarita's Thompson brothers enjoying good times

Sons of former NBA star Mychal Thompson are showing they have bright future in the game.

By ADAM MAYA

OCVarsity.com

For Santa Margarita's Klay Thompson, a recent detention was unusual, but the circumstances were not.

�I had detention at 6:45 (a.m.),� Klay said. �He wanted to take me at 6. It's a 10-minute drive. It's almost annoying.�

Klay is talking about his father, Mychal Thompson, a former NBA player who works as a radio talk show host for KLAC/570 and is the Lakers' radio analyst. Mychal has his reasons.

�If (Pat) Riley said to be on the bus at 5, I'd be on at 4:35,� Mychal said. �Magic (Johnson) would come on at 4:40. And Kareem (Abdul Jabbar) at 4:41. If those guys are on the bus early, then I need to be on early.�

More than 16 years since his final game, the NBA still is in Mychal Thompson's blood. His wife, Julie, said he always arrives before pregame warm-ups for his sons' games and sometimes will show up hours early.

Mychal's youngest son, Trayce, said his father will exaggerate the time many school mornings to get him and Klay out of bed.

�It'll be 6 and he'll say it's 6:30,� Trayce said. �And we know by now. And he knows that we know. But he still does it. I don't get it.�

That is not to say Klay and Trayce, who play on the Santa Margarita varsity team, aren't listening.

�They're a lot like Dad,� Santa Margarita coach Jerry DeBusk said. �They're quiet. They're respectful. A lot of people draw some generalities: Your dad's an NBA player, you must be this, this and this. You wouldn't know that. They don't brag. They don't have big heads.�

Mychel, the oldest Thompson brother who played at Santa Margarita two years ago, was no different. DeBusk said if not for the last name, he would not suspect their father had once been an NBA star, or ever acted like he was.

�(Mychal's) very quiet when you take the microphone away,� said Julie, noting his mother has always told her he was the quietest of her seven children.

The loudest thing Mychal might have done outside of helping the Lakers win back-to-back championships was, while a senior in high school, legally change the spelling of his name. He had one of the most common names in the world and said he was tired of seeing it written as �Mike� in newspaper articles.

WHEN DAD TALKS

Soon after Thompson's 12-season playing career � which started with the Trail Blazers in 1978 � ended with the Lakers, the Thompsons moved back to Portland, where they stayed until 2004. Mychal said the toddlers were like triplets, each with an immediate talent for sports � Mychel and Klay could dribble a basketball with either hand by the age of 2.

But the boys were not groomed to be ballplayers.

�I've left most of the coaching to other people,� Mychal said. �I didn't want to burn them out. You have to develop a passion and love of the game yourself. I can't instill that in them.�

He might shoot around, but he has not played with them since Klay beat him in a one-on-one as a freshman. Mychal's influence instead has been centered on their character, encouraging hard work and respect for the game and their opportunities. Klay said it is why he listens.

�When he says something I can't shrug it off,� he said. �He's not going to force me to live up to his name.�

And yet, Klay and his brothers have in their own way. Mychel earned a scholarship to Pepperdine, where he is a sophomore. Trayce, whose first sport is baseball, was invited this past summer to play on the junior national team. And the 6-foot-6, 190-pound Klay has emerged into one of the county's best players in the past year. He is averaging 22.7 points while playing all three perimeter positions for an Eagles team that entered Friday undefeated.

In November he signed a letter of intent to play at Washington State.

KEEPING BUSY

There are four schedules on the Thompsons' kitchen wall: Santa Margarita boys basketball, Pepperdine men's basketball, and two for the Lakers. Because of his demanding travel commitment to the Lakers, Mychal expects to attend maybe a dozen of his sons' games, which he highlighted in bright orange before the season.

Julie is always there. Trayce said he does not recall his mother missing a Santa Margarita varsity game in the past three years. On Wednesday, both were at Ocean View High as the Eagles played in the Tournament of Champions.

Mychal arrived by himself, early.

�It's an honor, a privilege,� Mychal said. �I appreciate it so much because if you see every game you take it for granted. Since I rarely get to a game, I have a great time just watching.�

But Mychal does not just watch. All 6-10 of him sits halfway up the stands at midcourt, filming games with his video recorder.

On this night he captured a 37-point show from Klay, who made a barrage of perimeter shots to rally the Eagles in the second half against Pasadena. After his three-pointer with two minutes remaining quarter gave Santa Margarita the lead, Trayce hit Klay on a backdoor cut for a layup on the next possession, and the Eagles won by three.

The Thompsons were on time, once again.