Lance Thomas

Lance Thomas

No. 42   New Orleans Hornets
Forward
Personal information
Born	April 24, 1988 (1988-04-24) Brooklyn, New York
Nationality	American
High school	Saint Benedict's Preparatory School, Newark, New Jersey Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School
Listed height	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Listed weight	225 lb (102 kg)
Career information
College	Duke
Career history
2010–2012	Austin Toros (D-League)
2011–present	New Orleans Hornets
Stats at NBA.com

Medal record
Men's basketball
Competitor for United States
Pan American Games
Bronze	2011 Guadalajara	National team

Lance Thomas (born April 24, 1988) is an American professional basketball player who plays for the New Orleans Hornets of the NBA. Thomas formerly played for Duke University Blue Devils men's basketball team. He is from Scotch Plains, New Jersey but was born in Brooklyn, New York. He started at power forward for Duke's national champion 2010 team. For the 2010–11 season and parts of the 2011-12 season, Thomas played for the Austin Toros of the NBA D-League.

High school

Thomas originally attended Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. He was highly recruited out of high school, choosing Duke over Rutgers, Wake Forest, Connecticut, Arizona, Florida, and Georgia Tech.

While playing for Danny Hurley, former Seton Hall point guard, (brother of former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley) at Newark Saint Benedict's Preparatory School, he led the school to two Prep A Division New Jersey State titles while averaging 14.5 PPG and 6.5 RPG his senior year. He was named to the 2006 McDonald's All-America team, and had nine points and two steals in the McDonald's All-American game.

USA U18 National Team

He also played on the USA U18 National team, which won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas U18 tournament. However, he barely saw the floor and only averaged 0.5 PPG and 1.0 RPG.

College

In his freshman year, he averaged 4.0 PPG and 2.5 RPG. In his sophomore year, he averaged 4.3 PPG and 3.3 RPG. His career-high in points came on November 28, 2008, when he scored 21 points against Duquesne.

2009–10

In 2009–10, he and Jon Scheyer were co-captains of the Duke team. He had a career-high 12 rebounds against NC State in January 2010.

Duke won the national championship against the Gordon Hayward led Butler Bulldogs 61–59, with Thomas on the floor after having played 35 minutes of the game, and shot 3–5 from the field. He said:

The last 30 seconds seemed like 10 minutes. When the ball bounced off, confetti came down. I looked up at the confetti, and the next thing I know I'm on my back. Jon (Scheyer) tackled me. At that point, it hit home that we were national champions.

He ended his career 10th on Duke's all-time list in offensive rebounds (255). In 2009–10 he averaged 4.8 points and 4.9 rebounds in 25.3 minutes per game, and led the team in charges taken with 16. He was also voted to the ACC All-Defensive team.

Pro career

Thomas was drafted by the Austin Toros in the NBA D-League. He began the 2011-12 season with the New Orleans Hornets, but on December 31, 2011, he was waived and returned to the Toros. On February 6, 2012, New Orleans re-signed Thomas to a ten day contract.

See also

• 2006 high school boys basketball All-Americans
• 2009–10 Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team

External links

• Duke bio