Above: Mychel Thompson (Photo: NYK)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
Mychel Thompson, the son of Nassau native and NBA star Mychal Thompson, has signed a contract with the New York Knicks.
Thompson, a 6-6 swingman, played in five games for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2011-2012 NBA season, and played five games with the Knicks’ summer league team in Las Vegas this year.
He attended college at Pepperdine University.
His father, Mychal, was the first overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft – and the first foreign-born player – not to mention Bahamian – to be picked first.
Basketball is definitely in the family — Klay Thompson, Mychel’s brother, emerged as the starting two-guard for the Golden State Warriors last year in his first NBA season.
Klay and Mychel’s younger brother, Trayce, is an outfielder for the Charlotte Knights, the highest-level minor-league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox baseball team.
If Mychel ends up making the team, it will be the second straight year in which the Knicks field a player of Caribbean heritage, following Jamaica’s Jerome Jordan last year. Jordan was traded over the summer to the Houston Rockets in deal involving Marcus Camby.
Of course, the Knicks are no strangers to Caribbean talent – Patrick Ewing, perhaps the greatest Knicks player of all time, is a native of Kingston.