WASHINGTON - Flanked by many of the great coaching names in college basketball and introduced for his award by his three children, Georgetown University Hall of Fame Men's Basketball Head Coach John Thompson Jr. was presented the Court of Honor Award by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) at The Court of Honor Gala on Wednesday night at Cipriani in New York City.

The honor for the legendary Hoya coach marks the first time the NABC has presented the Court of Honor Award to one of its members.

The Court of Honor Award is presented to an individual who has roots in college basketball, values those roots, and has gone on to distinguish himself in his profession, exhibiting the highest standards of leadership.

Thompson Jr. was presented the Court of Honor Award by his three children, his daughter, Tiffany Thompson, current Georgetown Head Men's Basketball Coach John Thompson III, and former Hoya standout Ron Thompson, along with Nike Chairman Phil Knight, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams.

Among the speakers at the dinner was Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim.

Several of Thompson's former players were in attendance, including Hall of Famers Patrick Ewing and Dikembe Mutombo, as well as Ralph Dalton and Michael Jackson, both members of the 1984 National Championship team.

Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, the 6-10 Thompson was an All-America player at John Carroll High in Washington, D.C., before starring at Providence College. He played on two NBA championship teams with the Boston Celtics prior to entering the coaching profession at St. Anthony's High, where his teams had a 122-28 record.

Georgetown hired Thompson as its head coach in 1972 and it didn't take long for the Hoyas to reap rewards, earning three NCAA tournament berths with a pair of NIT appearances in his first seven seasons. When Dave Gavitt led the formation of the BIG EAST Conference for the 1979-80 season, the Hoyas were dominant, winning six of the first 10 BIG EAST championships while capturing the NCAA title in 1984 and finishing second nationally in 1982 and 1985.

With 596 career wins and 24-consecutive postseason berths in his 27 years as Georgetown's head coach, Thompson had 76 of the 78 players who stayed at Georgetown for four years receive a degree. The three-time BIG EAST Coach of the Year and four-time national coach of the year was a demonstrative opponent of "Proposition 42" in 1989, which focused national attention on the issues of economic and educational discrimination.

Since his retirement from active coaching in 1999, Thompson has established the John Thompson Charitable Foundation to help improve the quality of life for disadvantaged children within the District of Columbia and other communities. He continues to assist organizations in his professional advisory roles as a consultant, spokesman and board member to Nike, along with serving as Coach Emeritus and Charitable Presidential Consultant for Urban Affairs at Georgetown.

On September 12, 2014, numerous dignitaries and alumni, along with former and current basketball players, were in attendance as Georgetown held groundbreaking ceremonies for the John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletics Center, a $62 million project expected to be completed in August 2016.

The inaugural Court of Honor Gala Experience was held in April 2009 in Chicago, where Jerry Colangelo, chairman of USA Basketball and the man who assembled the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team in 2008, received the Court of Honor Award. Former Senator Bill Bradley, who combined distinguished careers in basketball, politics and government to become an iconic figure across America, was the recipient of the 2010 Court of Honor Award in New York. Phil Knight, the chairman and co-founder of Nike, Inc., the world's largest sports and fitness company, received the award in 2011, also in New York. The 2013 recipient was Jim Nantz of CBS Sports, the multi-Emmy Award winning sportscaster who called his 28th-consecutive NCAA® Men's Final Four® in 2014 in Dallas. Dick Vitale, ESPN college basketball analyst and the unofficial "ambassador" for the game, was honored in New York on June 25, 2014.