Career Spotlight – Cory Thompson
He was arguably the best rebounder the Cayman Islands has ever seen, one of the country’s top defenders and possibly one of the greatest shot blockers in Cayman’s history.
Cayman Basketball built its foundation around this 6’3 versatile player who represented the three island nation at the very first NatWest Island Games and came away with a silver medal.
Got your attention? Good!
Now let’s read about 41 year old Cory Thompson who has paved the way for several young Cayman basketball players to take their talents overseas.
Ireland:
Cory Thompson signed his first professional contract in the Super league with a team called Neptune from Cork. While staying in Ireland for a few months which happened to be the same time as pre-season tryouts, Thompson was invited to train with the team for a few months and played the first few games with the them before returning to study at Hillsbourough County in Tampa, Florida.
Tampa:
In Tampa, this power forward and center played in a few local leagues and won 3 championships in which he was selected to play in the NBA Hoop It Up 3on3 challenge where he won the Men’s 1st Division B for the entire tournament.
United Kingdom:
In 1999 Thompson and his Cayman teammate Erdmon McCoy were offered contracts for 2 different teams. They both travelled to Cardiff to tryout with the Clippers and Coventry Tigers which they both got offered contracts.
According to Thompson, both he and McCoy returned home to Cayman to decide on which contract to take but unfortunately McCoy had broken his instep in a pre-season game where they both competed before heading back home….This prevented McCoy’s chance at the pro leagues. Thompson then however, decided not to return as well but to continue his studies in Florida.
After finishing College, Thompson returned to the UK and signed with the Southampton Trial Blazers in the 4th national league. His very first professional team. That season, Thompson and the Blazers went 15-0 to win the Southern Division.
A few seasons after, Thompson went onto play for Chichester Thunder where he also won the 4th Southern Division that year. Thompson was the 2nd top scorer on the team averaging a double in every game with 20+ points.
France:
Later on Thompson and most of his teammates from the Chichester squad joined the 1st division Worthing Thunder where they placed 2nd in the national division that year.
Thompson was also selected 3 years in a row to play in the Quartier Quest, a tournament held in Northern France which is the home town of the NBA’s Nicolas Batum of the Charlotte Hornets.
Thompson said, “he was fortunate to meet and play alongside Batum once as the Hornets did not make the NBA playoffs that year so Batum returned to France for competition.”
Members of the team consisted of top BBL players, England and Nigerian national team players.
However, Thompson said, “what was most important for me during that time playing and travelling around the UK was that I found time to obtain my Bacholer and Masters degrees in Communication Design along with my level 1 and 2 City and Guilds certificate in Web design.” He said he also became a level 1 coach and began coaching kids in a few camps in the UK and 1 in Norway.”
Finland:
When Thompson migrated to Finland he found a new passion in coaching but he also played in the men 2nd division. The first year he was the assistant coach for the U16 Boys 1st division. Thompson said the head coach allowed him to coach and change up his system because he wanted to mentor him to become the head coach for Masu Basket….in which he did.
This same year Masu won the U16 1st division where Thompson also coached the team in an invitational tournament held in Finland where they won a gold medal with the team also setting a tournament record by remaining undefeated throughout the season.
That year, Thompson played and coached for the same basketball club. He played 3 seasons and coached for 4 seasons.
Clubs in Finland are a big deal with teams starting as young as U10 straight to men’s professional level league with the biggest club in Finland having over 1500 players.
Officiating:
Thompson also dabbled in Officiating throughout his extended career. He stepped away from coaching for a while to become a professional referee. Thompson currently holds a level 1 certificate which allows him to referee in the Women’s 1st division which is televised; Men 2nd division and all national and U19 league games.
Thompson said, “he has enjoyed refereeing so far because it has allowed him to travel all over Europe and officiate various tournaments in places such as Sweden, Hungry, Spain and Norway.
After Thompson stopped playing in the men’s 2nd division he then transferred to another club NMKY to play in a higher league in the Men’s 35 Senior National league where he and his team finished 5th the very first season.
Next season, Thompson will be playing in the Senior league once again and also tournaments around Finland. The winners of the Senior national league will go on to represent Finland in the FIMBA world championship.
Local Teams:
Thompson has shared his talents with several local teams in the Men’s National league throughout the years. Most notably
The Island Pharmacy Huskies where he has won a championship with the Huskies being the first team in Cayman to go through the entire season undefeated. Thompson also represented local teams CNB; Coconut Car Rental (championship); Harlem Bulls; Police (championship)
DHL Wolverines (championship) and Shaolin Warriors.
Islands Games:
The 6’3 center also represented the Cayman Islands at 4 NatWest Island Games in Gotland, Sweeden where Cayman won Silver; Guernsey where Cayman won Silver once again; Aland and Isle of Wight.
Caricom/CBC Games:
Thompson also led the Cayman Islands to 5th place out of 13 Caribbean countries in the 1999 Junior Caricom Basketball tournament held in Jamaica.
RBMF:
Thompson also founded the Rodney Bodden Memorial Foundation in 2006 in which he organizes a weekend of fun basketball competition in the Cayman Islands in honour of his former National teammate who passed away in 1998. It started as a one day 3 on 3 tournament and evolved into a 3 day weekend which now includes an all star night and 3 point shootout.
Thompson now resides in Finland where he continues to play and give back to the sport he loves ever so passionately.
