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Kurt Thomas (basketball)

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Kurt Thomas
Thomas in 2009
Personal information
Born (1972-10-04) October 4, 1972 (age 52)
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight240 lb (109 kg)
Career information
High schoolHillcrest (Dallas, Texas)
CollegeTCU (1990–1995)
NBA draft1995: 1st round, 10th overall pick
Selected by the Miami Heat
Playing career1995–2013
PositionPower forward / center
Number40, 44
Career history
1995–1997Miami Heat
1997–1998Dallas Mavericks
1999–2005New York Knicks
2005–2007Phoenix Suns
2007–2008Seattle SuperSonics
2008–2009San Antonio Spurs
2009–2010Milwaukee Bucks
2010–2011Chicago Bulls
2011–2012Portland Trail Blazers
2012–2013New York Knicks
Career highlights and awards
Career statistics
Points8,973 (8.1 ppg)
Rebounds7,328 (6.6 rpg)
Assists1,204 (1.1 apg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

Kurt Vincent Thomas (born October 4, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'9", 230 lb. power forward-center, Thomas was known for his hard-nosed playing style and tough defense during his eight year tenure with the New York Knicks. Having played college basketball at Texas Christian University, he was drafted by the Miami Heat in 1995 and went on to play parts of 18 seasons in the NBA.

High school and college

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Kurt began his basketball career on the playgrounds at Dallas Birdie Alexander Elementary, D.A. Hulcy Middle School, and thereafter on to Dallas Carter High before transferring to Hillcrest High. Thomas grew up in Dallas, and after graduating from Dallas's Hillcrest High School, he attended Texas Christian University, where he led the NCAA Division I in scoring and rebounding in the 1994–95 season with 28.9 PPG and 14.6 RPG, becoming only the third player in history to accomplish this feat (the other two being Hank Gathers and Xavier McDaniel).[1]

NBA career

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Miami Heat (1995–1997)

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Thomas began his NBA career with the Miami Heat from 1995 to 1997. In his rookie season, he started 42 of his 74 games played. On December 10, 1995, he set a then career high with 29 points, along with grabbing 15 rebounds, in a loss to the Sacramento Kings.[2] The following season, he only played 18 games before suffering a stress fracture in his right ankle, which required surgery. He would miss the rest of the season.[3] During his rehab, Thomas, along with Sasha Danilović and Martin Müürsepp, were traded to the Dallas Mavericks for Jamal Mashburn.[4]

Dallas Mavericks (1997–1998)

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Thomas's playing career with Dallas was short. He only played 5 games before suffering another stress fracture in the same ankle he had previously injured. This placed him on the injured list for the remainder of the season. Then-coach and general manager Don Nelson went out of his way to hire Thomas as an assistant coach.[5] In the offseason, Thomas decided to become a free agent, signing with the New York Knicks.[6]

New York Knicks (1999–2005)

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Thomas played seven seasons with the New York Knicks from 1999 to 2005,[7] during which the team went to the playoffs four times, including two trips to the Eastern Conference Finals (1999 and 2000) and one trip to the NBA Finals (1999).[8] On March 28, 1999, Thomas was disqualified, and later fined $5,000, for a flagrant foul against Dennis Rodman during a 99-91 loss against the Los Angeles Lakers.[9] In the 2001 NBA Playoffs, Thomas averaged 14.4 points and 11.2 rebounds while starting all five games in a 2-3 first round series loss against the Toronto Raptors.[10] His best personal success perhaps came in the 2001-02 NBA season, where he started all 82 regular season games and averaged 13.2 points and 9.1 rebounds a game.[11] Also during this season, and the following, Thomas scored a career high 33 points, on March 17, 2002 and then on November 8, 2002.[12]

Phoenix Suns (2005–2007)

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Thomas played two seasons with the Phoenix Suns from 2005 to 2007.[7]

Seattle SuperSonics (2007–2008)

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On July 20, 2007, Thomas, along with the Suns' first-round draft choices in 2008 and 2010 (which became Serge Ibaka and Quincy Pondexter), was traded by the Suns to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for a conditional second-round draft choice and an $8 million trade exception.[13]

San Antonio Spurs (2008–2009)

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Thomas was traded by the Sonics to the San Antonio Spurs on February 20, 2008, for Francisco Elson, Brent Barry, and a 2009 first-round draft pick.[14]

Milwaukee Bucks (2009–2010)

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Thomas with the Milwaukee Bucks

On June 23, 2009, Thomas was traded along with Bruce Bowen and Fabricio Oberto to the Milwaukee Bucks for Richard Jefferson.[15]

Chicago Bulls (2010–2011)

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On July 26, 2010, the Chicago Bulls announced that they had signed Kurt Thomas.[16] Because of injuries to the Bulls' starting center Joakim Noah and power forward Carlos Boozer, Kurt Thomas saw some significant playing time, including 37 starts.[17] When Noah and Boozer came back, he experienced minimal playing time with Ömer Aşık playing in front of him on the bench. Although his playing time was slim during this span, Kurt Thomas won the appeal of Chicago fans with some emphatic highlights which were referred to as "Turning back the Clock" and eventually earned him the nickname "Big Sexy". Thomas averaged more than 20 minutes per game during the 2010-11 season along with 4.1 points and 5.8 rebounds.[18]

Portland Trail Blazers (2011–2012)

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On December 11, 2011, the Portland Trail Blazers signed Thomas for the shortened 2011-2012 season.[19] Though terms for the deal were not disclosed officially, it was reported to be a two-year contract.[20]

Return to the Knicks (2012–2013)

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On July 16, 2012, Thomas and Raymond Felton were traded to the New York Knicks for Jared Jeffries, Dan Gadzuric, the rights to Kostas Papanikolaou and Giorgos Printezis, and a second round draft pick.[21] On April 12, 2013, the Knicks waived Thomas.[22]

NBA career statistics

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Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
 *  Led the league

Regular season

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1995–96 Miami 74 42 22.4 .501 .000 .663 5.9 .6 .6 .5 9.0
1996–97 Miami 18 9 20.8 .371 .000 .761 5.9 .5 .7 .5 6.3
1997–98 Dallas 5 0 14.6 .378 - 1.000 4.8 .6 .2 .0 7.4
1998–99 New York 50* 44 23.6 .462 .000 .611 5.7 1.1 .9 .3 8.1
1999–00 New York 80 21 24.6 .505 .333 .781 6.3 1.0 .6 .5 8.0
2000–01 New York 77 29 27.6 .511 .333 .814 6.7 .8 .8 .9 10.4
2001–02 New York 82 82 33.8 .494 .167 .815 9.1 1.1 .9 1.0 13.9
2002–03 New York 81 81 31.8 .483 .667 .750 7.9 2.0 1.0 1.2 14.0
2003–04 New York 80 75 31.9 .473 .000 .835 8.3 1.9 .7 1.0 11.1
2004–05 New York 80 80 35.7 .471 .500 .786 10.4 2.0 .9 1.0 11.5
2005–06 Phoenix 53 50 26.6 .486 - .815 7.8 1.1 .4 1.0 8.6
2006–07 Phoenix 67 13 18.0 .486 .000 .789 5.7 .4 .4 .4 4.6
2007–08 Seattle 42 39 25.2 .513 - .696 8.8 1.3 .8 1.0 7.5
2007–08 San Antonio 28 9 18.7 .448 .000 .583 4.9 .5 .8 .5 4.5
2008–09 San Antonio 79 10 17.8 .503 .000 .822 5.1 .8 .4 .7 4.3
2009–10 Milwaukee 70 9 15.0 .476 - .800 4.2 .7 .4 .7 3.0
2010–11 Chicago 52 37 22.7 .511 1.000 .630 5.8 1.2 .6 .8 4.1
2011–12 Portland 53 3 15.2 .465 - .700 3.5 .9 .5 .6 3.0
2012–13 New York 39 17 10.1 .542 1.000 .462 2.3 .5 .3 .4 2.5
Career 1110 650 24.5 .486 .281 .760 6.6 1.1 .7 .8 8.1

Playoffs

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1996 Miami 3 3 20.0 .400 - 1.000 5.3 1.0 .7 .3 4.0
1999 New York 20 12 21.0 .381 - .696 5.5 .4 .8 .6 5.3
2000 New York 16 0 15.7 .508 - .700 3.1 .3 .2 .4 4.3
2001 New York 5 5 37.2 .532 - .710 11.2 1.8 .4 1.0 14.4
2004 New York 4 4 34.8 .429 - .750 11.5 1.5 1.8 .8 12.8
2006 Phoenix 1 0 6.0 .000 - .500 1.0 .0 .0 .0 1.0
2007 Phoenix 11 5 19.3 .523 - .882 4.9 1.1 .5 .8 7.5
2008 San Antonio 17 8 15.8 .457 - .714 4.9 .4 .1 .4 4.1
2009 San Antonio 5 0 16.0 .455 - .750 4.6 .4 .2 .4 2.6
2010 Milwaukee 7 7 28.4 .486 - .800 7.9 1.6 .4 .6 5.4
2011 Chicago 7 0 10.6 .556 .000 .000 2.7 .4 .1 .4 2.9
Career 96 44 19.7 .463 .000 .748 5.4 .7 .4 .5 5.6

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Kurt Thomas". NBA.com. Archived from the original on April 10, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  2. ^ "Kurt Thomas Rookie High Points Game". Statmuse.
  3. ^ "Kurt Thomas - MavsWiki". Archived from the original on February 25, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
  4. ^ Brown, Clifton (February 15, 1997). "Miami Acquires Mashburn From Dallas to Bolster Its Firepower". The New York Times.
  5. ^ "THOMAS GIVES MAVS KURT REPLY NOTCHES 20 VS. OLD TEAM". New York Daily News.
  6. ^ ""1998-99 New York Knicks Transactions at Basketball-Reference.com"".
  7. ^ a b "Kurt Thomas Career Stats Page". NBA.com. Archived from the original on March 21, 2011. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  8. ^ "Kurt Thomas Bio Page". NBA.com. Archived from the original on April 10, 2010. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  9. ^ "NBA fines four, not Rodman". Tampa Bay Times.
  10. ^ "2000-01 New York Knicks Roster and Stats". Basketball Reference.
  11. ^ "Kurt Thomas Per Game Averages".
  12. ^ "Kurt Thomas Career High 33 Points". Statmuse.
  13. ^ Suns gain $8M trade exception by trading Thomas, posted July 20, 2007
  14. ^ Spurs get Thomas from Sonics for Barry, Elson
  15. ^ "Bucks source confirms Jefferson deal". June 23, 2009. Retrieved July 24, 2010.
  16. ^ "Bulls sign forward/center Kurt Thomas | Chicago Bulls". NBA.com.
  17. ^ "Kurt Thomas Stats".
  18. ^ "Kurt Thomas Career Stats - NBA". ESPN. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  19. ^ "Team adds NBA veteran to frontcourt". December 11, 2011. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012.
  20. ^ "Blazers to add Kurt Thomas". December 11, 2011.
  21. ^ KNICKS ACQUIRE FELTON & THOMAS Archived April 19, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ "New York Knicks waive Kurt Thomas". Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
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