Chris Thomas (born October 3, 1982 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is a Polish-American professional basketball player who is an alumnus of Pike High School and the University of Notre Dame.
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Christopher Ryan Thomas is the son of Frank & Tammy Thomas. His mother is Polish-American and his father is African-American. He has 3 siblings. His dad Frank also played college basketball at Butler University and was an Indiana all-state selection at Northside High School.
Thomas led the Pike High School Red Devils to 2 state titles in his 4 years at Pike. In 2001, he was named Indiana's "Mr. Basketball".
Thomas chose Notre Dame over Stanford, Purdue, Indiana, Duke and Michigan State. At Notre Dame he was an economics major in the College of Arts and Letters. After College he still is in the UND basketball record books for a number of categories. He ranks eighth on the Notre Dame's all-time scoring list with 1,783 points. He is also the school's all-time leader in assists, having dished out 638 in his career. His career scoring average of 18.0 ppg ranks 11th on the school's all-time list. He also ranks second all-time in school history with 302 3-Point Field Goals, third in steals with 184, and 11th in 3 Point Field Goal Percentage. He recorded the only triple-double in school history, against University of New Hampshire, when he scored 24 points, had 11 assists, and 11 steals in his first game. He was named to the First Team All Notre Dame team as the point guard. This team was put together to celebrate 100 years of Notre Dame basketball and Thomas was the first team point guard.
He received many post season awards such as Big East Conference Freshman of the Year. He also won the National Freshman of the Year by Basketball Times and Basketball News. He finished as the team's second-leading scorer with a 15.6 scoring average.
An honorable mention Associated Press selection. His numbers were up from last season as Chris finished the season second in scoring again with an 18.7 scoring average. He became the 43rd player in Notre Dame basketball history to score 1,000 career points and just seventh player to reach the mark in his second season. Coming off a season where he garnered Associated Press honorable mention All-American honors, Thomas declared himself eligible for the 2003 NBA Draft on May 6, 2003. After participating in individual workouts with a number of teams, Thomas never got a guarantee he would be a first-round pick, which meant a guaranteed three-year contract. Thomas withdrew on June 6 to return to Notre Dame for the 2003-04 year.
He was named to the Associated Press Honorable Mention selection and BIG EAST second-team honoree for the second straight year. He became the career leader in assists with 638, setting the record in home game against Connecticut on February 9, 2004. He is the only player in Notre Dame basketball history to score more than 1,700 points and dish off 600-plus assists.
Up until his senior season Chris never missed a game during his Irish career and started all 99 contests. On April 9 he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery for a cartilage tear in left kneecap. He was schedule to return to the court by mid-August 2004. Despite playing with knee injury throughout the season, averaged 38.3 minutes per game.
2006/07: Anwil (PLK) 2007/08 and 2008/09 CB Murcia, Spain Thomas was currently playing for Baloncesto Fuenlabrada, Ayuda en acción Fuenlabrada in Spain's top professional basketball league the Liga ACB during the 2009/2010 season. The American guard was released by Spanish Fuenlabrada but it seemes he did not have wait too long for a new job because he signed a 2 year contrant with Anwil Wloclawek in Poland, in which he played for in 2007 and their team won the Cup in Poland. Thomas was released from his contract with the Polish Anwil Wloclawek at the end of the season. He is now a free agent.