Michael Jordan surprises with choice for Hall of Fame induction

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In a surprise move, Michael Jordan has chosen former NBA star and North Carolina State great David Thompson to induct him into the basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.

Not Dean Smith. Not Phil Jackson. Not Scottie Pippen. David Thompson.

‘I got a call from the Hall of Fame and they asked me if I was willing to be a presenter for someone,” Thompson told Yahoo! Sports. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t know who it was. … They said Michael Jordan. I was like, ‘Wow.’ He told them that he was a big fan of mine, and I was the one that really inspired him. Being that there was so many North Carolina people he could’ve chose, I was honored.’

Jordan mentioned in his autobiography that there would be no Michael Jordan without players such as Thompson, saying, “I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era. Without Julius Erving, David Thompson, Walter Davis, and Elgin Baylor, there would never have been a Michael Jordan. I evolved from them.”

-- Houston Mitchell