Know Your Team: Terry Thomas
London Lightning
6'4
Guard
From Darthmouh, Nova Scotia
2xAll-NBLC
Having established himself as one of the most top NBLC offensive players of his time, Terry Thomas continues to put his mark on the Canadian in as many different team uniforms as he can.
His basketball journey began in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, with the St Francis Xavier X-Men, for whom he won numerous All-Atlantic University Sport honours, and made it to the USports Final 8 Tournament. He saw similar success with his second college team, the Ottawa Gee-Gees: his 22.4 point average was the fourth-best nationwide in the 2013-14 season. The Gee-Gees became the top-seeded team in the country and made it to the university championship final, but lost to the Carleton Ravens.
Thomas turned professional in 2014, joining the Hamburg Towers in Germany, finishing with 13.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game. His season in Germany over, he returned to Canada and joined the Summerside Storm. A regular double-digit scorer, Thomas averaged 18.9 points and 7.0 rebounds per game and was named All-NBLC First Team and Canadian Player of the Year in his debut season.
In his second year with the Storm he finished in double-digits in all but one game of the season, including the playoffs where he helped the Storm reach the Atlantic Division finals, where they lost to the Halifax Hurricanes in six games. From there Thomas joined the Moncton Magic and became the team’s leading scorer in the 2017-18 season, averaging a career-best 19.4 points per game.
In the same season he broke the forty-point mark against Saint John on December 29th 2017 and was also named to the All-NBL Canada First team. In-between he represented the Canadian team at the 2018 William Jones Cup in Taipei, where he led the scoring in four games and won tournament MVP as the Canadians won their second straight William Jones title.
The following season Thomas remained in Canada, this time the closest he had been to home. As member of the Halifax Hurricanes, he played in 33 games and posted career-high 20.3 points per game, as well as 6.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists. His expertise led them to the Atlantic Division finals, where they lost in seven games to eventual champions the Moncton Magic.
Though he missed the start of the 2019-20 NBLC season, he signed with his fourth team, the London Lightning, in late January. He would only play three games as the season was cut short and would spend the long NBLC hiatus with Nokia in Finland and Guaiqueries in Venezuela, for whom he was named league MVP. When the league resumed play Thomas re-joined the Lightning and made up for lost time with six straight double-digit performances, which included two double-doubles, the last of which on March 12th 2022 saw him enter the NBLC all-time top ten scorers.
Since joining NBLC, his scoring percentages have risen year-on-year, and has made a name for himself as one of the biggest offensive threats in the league and whichever team he suits up for those trends always seem to continue upwards.
