After watching the Dallas Mavericks upset the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets on Sunday, 107-105, on a left-handed
21-foot buzzer-beating hook shot from guard Kyrie Irving, Kurt Thomas allowed his mind to think about the possibilities for the Mavs going forward.
“It was a helluva shot,” Thomas told Mavs.com. “The Mavericks are playing great. Luka (Dončić) has been outstanding. Kyrie has been playing amazing.
“They made some nice trades at the trade deadline (to acquire Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington) that seem to be very positive. They’ve been playing well. But it’s a marathon.”
Thomas noted that the Mavs’ win over the Nuggets puts the rest of the NBA on notice. However, he added that this was not any type of best-of-seven playoff series.
“One game doesn’t mean anything,” Thomas said. “You’ve got to win four games to advance. But it’s very positive.
“To get a win against the defending champions, that’s definitely a positive no matter what.”
Thomas played 18 seasons in the NBA from 1995-2013 with nine different teams. He played for the Mavs during
the 1997-98 season, but a stress fracture in his right ankle limited him to just five games, and he averaged 7.4 points and 4.8 rebounds in just 14.6 minutes in those games.
Thomas played for Mavs coach Jim Cleamons. But after Cleamons was fired 16 games into the 1997-98 season and after Thomas suffered the season-ending right ankle injury, Don Nelson – then the Mavs’ coach and general manager – hired Thomas as an assistant coach. However, after the following season, Thomas decided to continue his playing career by signing a free agent contract with the Knicks.
The NBA can take a toll on a player’s body, but Thomas said the key to having a long career in this league is: “You’ve got to be lucky, number one, and hope you can find a team, find a coach, a general manager or somebody who really likes you and (can be) patient with you and is willing to give you the time to develop. I think those are some of the main keys. And then you just have to hope you can be lucky and stay healthy.
“You look at someone like LeBron (James), to play as long as he’s played with no serious injuries or anything, it’s truly amazing. And then 
for someone like me, I had a ton of injuries but was still able to have a long career.”
When Thomas broke into the NBA in 1995, the landscape had changed to where teams had just started flying on private charter planes. He said: “I remember when I got in there, guys were telling me, ‘Kurt, this just changed. This is new.’ “
The NBA game itself also has changed for the better since Thomas was a rookie.
“It’s definitely not as physical now, but it’s still a beautiful game,” Thomas said. “In my era, if you shot over 25 threes (in a game) they would have fired you. And now you’ve got teams averaging 45 threes a game.
“It’s just a beautiful game and it continues to get better and better. The fans love it, and it speaks for itself.”
A 6-9, 230-pound forward, Thomas had the pleasure of playing against Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James – the three players widely considered to be the greatest of all-time. So, who does Thomas considers to be the G.O.A.T?
“I’ve got to say Michael,” he said. “I don’t want to get in trouble.”
Thomas laughed and added: “I’m a big Kobe fan. I’ve always been a big Kobe fan – rest in peace. LeBron – 40,000 points, 21 seasons.
“You can’t take anything away from them. They were all great in their own era.”
When asked why he truly believes Jordan is the G.O.A.T., Thomas said: “He’s the greatest of all time. What do you mean? He had six championships. Two three-peats. Kobe almost had two three-peats – one with Shaquille (O’Neal) and one with Pau Gasol. Then what would they say?”
They actually said a lot about Thomas on a national level back in the day. After playing prep basketball at Dallas Hillcrest High School, Thomas was a third-team All-American at TCU in 1995 when he became just the third player in NCAA Division I history – Hank Gathers and Xavier McDaniel are the other two players – to lead the nation in both scoring and rebounding in the same season after he averaged 28.9 points and 14.6 rebounds during his senior season with the Horned Frogs.
“For me it was just going out there competing every day and just enjoying playing with my teammates,” Thomas said. “My teammates encouraged me
to just continue putting up numbers, and also my coaching staff, my friends and my family.
“I still remember going into Texas A&M and when they introduced the starting lineup they were holding up newspapers and chanting CBA. That’s when the CBA was big back then.”
In other words, the A&M fans thought Thomas was only good enough to eventually wind up in the Continental Basketball Association, which is the equivalent of playing in today’s NBA G League.
“It was just funny to me,” Thomas said. “You take the comedy with it. I just enjoyed it. It was a great experience.
“I just continued to learn from it and just tried to be strong no matter what, and not get down in dealing with the negativity, because it’s not going to always be positive. You see who got the last laugh.”
Thomas, indeed, got the last laugh as the Miami Heat chose him with the No. 10 overall pick of the 1995 NBA Draft.
Meanwhile, Bronny James ($4.9 million), Shedeur Sanders ($4.7 million), Livvy Dunne ($3.6 million), Caitlin Clark ($3.1 million) and Arch Manning ($2.8 million) reportedly have Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals that made them millionaires when they were teenagers or still in college in their early 20’s.
Thomas probably would have been in that same category had NIL deals been the law of the land during his college days. So, did he miss out on a big college pay day as a college student-athlete?
“I’ve never thought about it,” Thomas said. “I don’t like to harp on things when something didn’t happen. If you were in school now, you got a chance to get a scholarship, graduate and have anywhere from $100-250,000 in the bank, so you’re off to a good start. That definitely wasn’t the case back when I came out in ‘95.
“Back then I think the goal was to graduate and not have any student loans. Now you have that opportunity to actually go to school and educate yourself, and then actually leave there with a nice chunk of change in the bank. As much money as these universities are making, I definitely love to see the players start to reap some of the benefits from all that hard work.”
With the NCAA tournament and March Madness set to start this week, Thomas never experienced that because the Horned Frogs never qualified for the NCAA tourney while he was there. However, they did advance to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) his sophomore season, but a broken ankle prevented Thomas from participating in the tournament.
This week, TCU will be making its third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance — a record for the school.
“(TCU coach) Jamie Dixon has done an outstanding job,” Thomas said. “Three straight NCAA appearances, an NIT championship (in 2017).”
As far as his own life is concerned, the 51-year old Thomas has his own real estate company called Hatcher Gardens, and said business is good.
Thomas said he attends about 10 Mavs’ games a season, and also watches them on TV.
“I can watch it and I enjoy watching the game,” he said. “It’s a beautiful game to watch. I don’t miss being sore and I don’t miss being banged up. If I miss anything, I miss those paychecks.”
X: @DwainPrice
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