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This is Trayce Thompson, recently signed to a minor league contract by the Mets. Trayce is a strong defensive outfielder with beaucoups time in center, and a strong, dead-pull hitter. He unfortunately strikes out a lot, so his performances can wildly fluctuate, but he's a realistic candidate to be 2024's Tommy Pham. He also played for the UK on their first-ever World Baseball Classic team, by virtue of his Bahamian heritage.
Will he be great? I don't know, but if the genetic material that formed his body has anything to say about it, the possibility is there.
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This is Mychal Thompson — Trayce's dad and celebrated front-court fixture for the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers. He also spent the first half of his career with The Trailblazers, scoring almost 13,000 NBA points and pulling down nearly 7,000 rebounds. Heck, he even blocked over 1,000 shots, playing for two NBA champion teams.
Sharing the front court with other NBA legends through most of his career, he rarely got enough shots for serious All-Star consideration, but let's face it — he was pretty terrific, making the NBA All-Rookie first team back in 1979 after having been a second-team and a first-team all-America as a collegian, earning a number retirement from the University of Minnesota's Golden Gophers.
But what does that mean? His dad was something else. But that's only half of his genetic makeup.
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You see that awesome dig maneuver being executed on the volleyball court for the glory of The University of San Francisco? That dig is being dug by Julie Thompson, Trayce's mom, then known as Julie Leslie — standout outside hitter on the court for USF as well as The University of Portland, a high-school All American in the sport, despite not having taken it up until she was 14, also excelling in gymnastics and track and field, where she utterly flew in the long jump (top-jump of 19 ft 6 in) and triple jump (40 ft 0 in). She and Mychal met at the gym.
But so what? Putting two big-shot athletes into one gene pool doesn't guarantee the offspring will shine.
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That's Mychel Thompson. Mychel is Trayce's brother and a former member of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. He played during the 2011-2012 season, getting into five games. He clocked only 19 minutes, but hey, he scored 18 points and dished out seven assists in his short time there. Project that over a starter's workload and that's some impressive output.
But still ... I hear what you're saying. A guy dropping a few buckets in the NBA during some 10-day stint doesn't mean the apples are falling right under the tree. Does it?
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You may here recognize Klay Thompson, Trayce's other brother. Klay has spent 11 years as a swishing swingman for the dynastic Golden State Warrior franchise, perhaps the most consistently magnificent show in basketball since his father's years with the Lakers. Klay is riding nobody's shirt-tails, neither, having made five NBA All-Star squads, two all-NBA third teams, a Defensive All-NBA second team, all while winning four championships in the blue and gold. He's probably one of the league's all-time great three-point shooters, with perhaps the only thing that keeps that opinion from being universal is sharing the backcourt with Steph Curry.
Steph Curry, by the way, also had a dad who was an NBA star, also had a mother who was an NCAA volleyball standout, and also had a brother in the league.
Genes, baby.
Like his dad, Klay's number has been retired by his alma mater, The Washington State Cougars.
But dads and moms and brothers don't mean greatness is just pouring out of the faucet in your neighborhood or something.
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That's Kevin Love, the neighbor kid of the Thompson brothers, who played Little League ball with Klay. Kev is a former NBA champ who is a five-time All-Star. Like his former teammate Klay, he has won an NBA Three-Point Contest. He has twice made the All-NBA Second Team, and led the league in rebounding, which is a pretty cool combination to go with three-point skillzz. He was a first-team All-American in his college days and Pac-Ten Player of the year.
"But basketball isn't baseball!!!" you cry! I literally hearing you cry it! And besides, how much greatness-by-association do the guys your brother played with lend to your greatness? Not much, you may say. It's not like K-Love was on his squad!
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That there's Nolan Arenado, suckas. Nolan was Trayce's buddy and teammate growing up. Nolan is an eight-time MLB All-Star, a 10-time Gold Glove winner, the author of three home run titles and two RBI leaderships, totaling 325 homers in his career along with 1669 hits. If you don't consider him the greatest defensive third-baseman of all time, surely you put him in the picture, unless you're insane. Please don't pretend to be insane. This is clearly greatness by direct association. He'll be in the Hall of Fame about eight minutes after he retires.
"But these are jocks!" you say, and that's fine, because it's a jock profession that our Trayce aspires to greatness in. But true greatness transcends singular fields and disciplines. It's about inspiration and creativity and noble bearing and leadership and morality and stuff. It's about weaving a dynamic that leaves a mark on society, to utterly mix a metaphor. It's about change.
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Them's The Beach Boys — a rock-and-roll/vocal-harmony/surf-rock band that utterly transformed popular music, leaping off the local platform of surf culture to become a global phenomenon. That's true greatness, and they featured Kevin Love's uncle and three of his second cousins. It's not unthinkable that some or all of these characters and Trayce Thompson were under the same roof. After all, their nephew/second cousin was the playmate of Trayce's brother.
But now you think I'm stretching. Uncle? Second cousin? What's the link? What connects them to the jock aspirations of our man Trayce?
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This card you see above, apart from being the Platonic ideal of "1970s Basketball Card," depicts one Stan Love. Stan was the father of NBA star Kevin, and played four NBA seasons of his own. After that, he helped manage The Beach Boys, as they transcended into a brand new category of money-maker called a "legacy act" — keeping an indifferent recording schedule, landing few hits, but killing it on tour with a multi-generational audience dancing to their standards.
"STAN LOVE!!!!" you scream. "STAN LOVE was a goofy-looking backup in the NBA! And more of a heavy than a manager in the music industry!!
I say, sure, but who was he backing up?
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You're looking at Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes here. That's 17 All-Star games between them! THAT'S what it took to keep Stan Love on the bench!!
But we're still talking about Stan Love — Trayce Thompson's brother's playmate's father. We're getting far away from direct genetic association that we started with.
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Here's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and Magic Johnson. Fuck listing how many All-Star games they combined to play in (38), how many MVPs they won (9), or how many points they combined for (72,414). We're looking at transcendent figures in civic and social leadership here. One of them won The Presidential Medal of Freedom (before Rush Limbaugh utterly stained that honor), for Pete's sake. THIS is what it took to turn push Mychal Thompson into a role player, and he was a GREAT role player!
And they are all, quite possibly, on a first-name basis with Trayce Thompson.
Greatness. It's the sea that newly signed Met Trayce Thompson swims in. And I'm predicting a 90-homer season from him.
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