Donnell Lee Thomas (born December 21, 1968) is an American former basketball player. Standing at 196 cm, he played as small forward or power forward.[1]

Donnell Thomas
Personal information
Born (1968-12-21) December 21, 1968 (age 55)
Chicago, Illinois
Listed height196 cm (6 ft 5 in)
Listed weight95 kg (209 lb)
Career information
CollegeNorthern Illinois (1987–1991)
NBA draft1991: undrafted
Playing career1992–2001
PositionSmall forward / power forward
Career history
1992Nelson Giants
1995–1998Donar
1998–1999Maccabi Hadera
1999–2000Den Helder
2000Ural Great Perm
2000–2001Ben Hur
Career highlights and awards

College career

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Thomas played college basketball for the Northern Illinois Huskies men's basketball team, where he was nicknamed "D-Train", for his rebounding ability.[2] He led the team in scoring for three straight years and ended his NIU career as the team's second-highest scoring leader of all time.[3] He was inducted in the NIU Huskies' Hall of Fame in 2003.[2]

Professional career

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In 1992, Thomas played with the Nelson Giants of New Zealand's National Basketball League. He was named to the league's All-Star Five and was honoured as the Best Forward of the Commissioners Cup.[4]

From 1995 to 1998, Thomas played for Donar in the Dutch Eredivisie.[5] He was the league's Most Valuable Player in the 1997–98 season.[6] Thomas was also named to the All-Eredivisie First Team three times (from 1996 to 1998). He also led the league in scoring in 1997 and 1998, becoming the second player in league history to do so, after Maurice Smith in 1991.

For the 1998–99 season, Thomas played in Israel for Maccabi Hadera.[7] In the 1999–2000 season, he played for Den Helder.[8] He averaged 22.7 points in 96 Eredivisie games played.[8] He also played for Ural Great Perm in Russia that year, averaging 11.2 points in 19 games played.[1]

For the 2000–01 season, Thomas played in Argentina for Ben Hur.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Ural Great Roster (1999-2000): Donnell Thomas". ural-great.ru. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Donnell Thomas (2003) - Hall of Fame". NIU Athletics. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  3. ^ "Donnell Thomas College Stats". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  4. ^ "NZNBL: New Zealand National Basketball League". Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  5. ^ DonarMuseum. "Donnell Thomas - DonarMuseum.nl". www.donarmuseum.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  6. ^ "MVP Competitie". J-dus.com (in Dutch). Archived from the original on February 1, 2016. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Donnell Thomas". latinbasket.com. Retrieved June 30, 2022.
  8. ^ a b "Donnell Thomas Basketbal statistieken Spelers Dossier - NBB Database, basketball statistieken". db.basketball.nl. Retrieved June 29, 2022.