Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
Life on the basketball court the past few years has been pretty good for Deshaun Thomas.
He scores at will, dominates the boards and has won two state championships. But after he leaves the court and the cheers die down, he goes home, where it hasn’t always been so easy.
Basketball has come a lot easier to the 6-foot-7 senior from Bishop Luers than a stable home life. He has bounced around, from his grandmother to his sister to a teammate. That all changed a couple of years ago when Thomas moved back in with his older sister, Altermise Jackson, and found the steadiness he had been craving outside basketball.
“It was pretty tough growing up,” Thomas said from the couch at his sister’s southeast Fort Wayne house. “I didn’t really have my mom (Delores Jackson) there, but she is doing good. My father (Larry Thomas) was there, but he always worked. I just felt like I was by myself, and I was alone. I had my grandma and sister right there by my side, and it kept me strong. I am doing good things now.
“Moving from place to place when I was younger, and I was living with my grandma (Lady Mae Jackson), and my sister, and living with Lawrence (Barnett) my freshman and sophomore years, it has been kind of tough. I have been fighting through it, and I moved back with my sister my junior year, and my nephews are here, and they look up to me. My sister loves me a lot, and I know I can stay focused here with her and calm down and stay focused on my game.”
Thomas lived with his grandmother for six years until his freshman year at Luers. He has settled into a solid home life with his sister and two nephews and enjoys the life of a typical teenager – albeit as a star basketball player in a hoops-mad state.
Thomas also has another older sister and a brother.
“It means a lot because I know he loves playing basketball, but he also loves family, too,” Altermise Jackson said. “I am just happy he is not out there on the streets.”
Jackson is a fixture at Luers’ games, but she is no quiet spectator.
“I didn’t use to like watching basketball,” she said. “Now I love it. They were telling Deshaun that your sister is ‘OC,’ and I didn’t even know what that meant because I am older and that is a young term. It means ‘out of control’ because I will be up there yelling and screaming.”
Now it is all about basketball for the Ohio State signee, even at home. He has more than 200 pairs of sizes 14 and 15 basketball shoes, posters of NBA greats and plays against some of the best in the NBA already – in video games.
“It is pretty good seeing all the kids that look up to me, and all my friends that really care about me,” he said. “They don’t care just about how I hoop. They care about me as a person. Everybody loves my smile. I am just a normal kid, laughing and having fun.”
As an eighth-grader at Northwood Middle School, Thomas got noticed after averaging 24 points and 23 rebounds. The recruiting had begun, and that was just to see which high school he was going to attend. He enrolled at three schools: North Side, Concordia and Bishop Luers. He decided on the Knights after a conversation with his father.
“It was about playing with other players and will you get enough touches or average that many points,” Thomas said of picking a high school. “It was too much pressure. I sat down with my father, and he said I think you should go to Luers because (Luers coach James) Blackmon is a good coach, and he has been through all this and played at Kentucky and a little in the NBA, he can teach you things.”
Before his first high school game, friends were telling him he could be as good – as a freshman – as then-North Side senior Eshaunte “Bear” Jones.
Thomas didn’t believe it until he stepped onto the court and made an impression in his first home game against South Side.
“I was shy and never talked,” Thomas said of his personality before high school. “So I was like, we will see. I thought I was going to average 10 or 12 points. After the game against South Side, I realized how all the hard work pays off. I got used to it and averaged 29 points.”
Already northeast Indiana’s all-time leading scorer, Thomas has 2,254 career points in three seasons with the two-time defending Class 2A state champion Knights. That puts him 881 points from the state record of 3,134 set by Bedford-North Lawrence and Indiana legend Damon Bailey.
Thomas is reminded of the record often.
“I hear about it every day,” he said. “I go to the YMCA, Spiece (Fieldhouse), eat, everywhere. It is important to be the No. 1 scorer in the state. It is on my mind, but I have to go out there and play my best and go from there.
“It is a pressure a little bit because I think about it a lot and beating his record. People will come up to me and say ‘I want 35,’ and ‘you have to average this and that.’ It is a lot of pressure because people talk about it a lot.”
In less than a year, Thomas will be at Ohio State and playing college basketball for Thad Matta. All it means for the Thomas/Jackson family is taking the show on the road.
“It will be less work (for me) because he is spoiled,” Altermise Jackson said. “I clean his room, and he doesn’t do anything. His room is just going to stay clean. We will miss him, but we will be going down there now.”
Matta started recruiting Thomas before high school and was at that first home game against the Archers.
“I am getting ready for what college will be like,” Thomas said. “I know it won’t be easy because the Big Ten is strong. I am working out and playing in these high school games, so I will be ready for the Big Ten.”
Thomas would like to play in the NBA. He has played in camps run by LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Vince Carter of the Orlando Magic to get a taste of what being a pro player could be like one day.
“Every time I work out, I think about ‘I gotta get to the league,’ ” he said. “The NBA is always on my mind. This past week, one of my close friends told me to watch Carmelo Anthony, and that I reminded him of Carmelo Anthony. That’s the first time someone said I reminded them of an NBA player.”
“As Vince Carter and LeBron would explain it to us, you have to be really patient (in the NBA) because there are guys who are better than you and athletic and strong. I went up against Vince Carter again this year, and it was a good experience playing against Vince Carter. Learning a lot from the NBA players is really good and helps get you ready for that next level.”
