Kurt Thomas (basketball)

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. 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.[2] During his rehab, Thomas, along with Sasha Danilović and Martin Müürsepp, were traded to the Dallas Mavericks for Jamal Mashburn.[3]

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.[4] In the offseason, Thomas decided to become a free agent, signing with the New York Knicks.[5]

Thomas played seven seasons with the New York Knicks from 1998 to 2005,[6] 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).[7]

Thomas played two seasons with the Phoenix Suns from 2005 to 2007.[6]

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

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.[9]

On June 23, 2009, Thomas was traded along with Bruce Bowen and Fabricio Oberto to the Milwaukee Bucks for Richard Jefferson.[10]

On July 26, 2010, the Chicago Bulls announced that they had signed Kurt Thomas.[11] 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.[12] 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.

On December 11, 2011, the Portland Trail Blazers signed Thomas for the shortened 2011-2012 season.[13] Though terms for the deal were not disclosed officially, it was reported to be a two-year contract.[14]

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.[15] On April 12, 2013, the Knicks waived Thomas.[16]