Several Firsts

I was reading something the other day about the old Celts/Lakers rivalry in the 80s. Mychal Thompson's name came up in the course of the article, and my mind went back to those great series, several of which I watched with my dad in the basement to mitigate the crushing June heat and humidity. I remember thinking it was strange that Thompson spelled his name that way. Now, of course, I am aware of many sports figures who spell conventional names differently than the norm, but even then I noticed, so for me Mychal Thompson was the first athlete I can remember who had a creative spelling. After reading the Wikipedia article, I realized he is also the answer to a great sports trivia question - who was the first foreigner drafted no. 1 in the NBA draft? I never knew he was Bahamian. What a great defender, and what great series those were.