30 Irving Thomas

Irving Thomas was born on January 2, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York.

Thomas attended Miami Carol City High School in Miami, Florida, where he showcased his basketball talent, earning recognition as a McDonald’s High School All-American in 1985.  As a senior at Miami’s Carol City High School, Thomas averaged 18.6 points, 14.5 rebounds and 5.3 blocked shots a game in guiding the Chiefs to the 4A state championships.  Carol City racked up an impressive 38-1 record his senior year.  His best scoring performance was a 40-point outing in an AAU tournament the summer after his senior year.  He shot 64 percent from the floor and 73 percent from the line and was named to nearly every prep All-America team.  Thomas scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the 1985 McDonald’s Classic All-Star game.

After high school, Thomas played for the University of Kentucky Wildcats during the 1986–1988 seasons. Eddie Sutton succeeded Hall before Thomas’ freshman season and the Carol City product played sparingly in two years.  In his freshman season, he averaged 4.3 minutes of playing time and posted a 1.3 scoring average and 0.9 rebounds per game. Playing an average of 16.1 minutes per game in his sophomore season, Thomas averaged 3.3 points and 3.0 rebounds per game.

Ordinarily, an “aggressive player” fits in well at Kentucky. But Thomas’ rough and tumble style was exaggerated, sometimes outright dangerous, and forever, it seemed, out of sync with the flow of the game. However, the last straw came during the NCAA Tournament in Atlanta when Thomas floored an Ohio State player, then stepped over the player’s head as he lay prone on the floor. It was cheap, and Thomas drew the ire of many, many UK fans.

After finishing coursework for his sophomore season, Thomas announced that he would be leaving Kentucky.  He transferred to Florida State University, where he played from 1988 to 1990. At Florida State, he earned second-team All-Conference honors in the Metro Conference in 1990.

In 1990, Thomas was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the NBA Draft. During the 1990–1991 NBA season, he appeared in 26 games for the Lakers, averaging 1.8 points and 1.4 rebounds per game.

After his stint in the NBA, Thomas pursued a professional basketball career in Europe, playing for various teams across multiple countries. His international career included playing for PAOK in Greece, Rapid City Thrillers in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), and teams in Spain, Italy, France, and Germany.

Since 2001, Thomas has been associated with the Los Angeles Lakers as a scout, contributing his extensive basketball experience to the team’s talent evaluation and recruitment processes.