Introduction
William Benson Thomas (born July 1, 1986) is an American professional basketball player for Zenit Saint Petersburg of the VTB United League and the EuroLeague. He is former college basketball player for George Mason University. He also holds a Georgian passport.
College career
As a starter in his sophomore year, Thomas was part of the 2005-06 George Mason Final Four team.During his college career, Thomas was named to the Colonial Athletic Association's All-CAA second team in 2007 and first team in 2008.He was named to the CAA All-Defensive Team for the three straight seasons.In his senior season, he was the runner-up for both the CAA Player of the Year and CAA Defensive Player of the Year.
Professional career
After graduating from George Mason University in the spring of 2008, Thomas was picked to be part of the Washington Wizards summer league roster.He was cut from the team and shortly after signed with Belgacom Liege of the Belgian League. He signed a contract with BC Oostende after playing with Belgacom Liege for 2 years.
For the 2011-12 season, he signed a contract with BC Armia from Georgia. He helped them win the Georgian Cup.
In July 2012, he signed a contract with Pınar Karşıyaka of the Turkish Basketball League. On August 26, 2013, he signed a contract with an Italian league basketball team, Sidigas Avellino.
On July 22, 2014, Thomas signed a one-year deal with the Spanish team Unicaja. In his first EuroLeague season, he averaged 6.9 points and 4.5 rebounds over 24 games played.
On July 14, 2016, he signed a two-year deal with Spanish club Valencia Basket. On July 27, 2018, he signed a one-year contract extension with Valencia Basket, until the end of the 2018–19 season.
On August 7, 2019, Thomas signed with Russian club Zenit Saint Petersburg of the VTB United League and the EuroLeague.
Records
Thomas is George Mason University's eighth all-time point scorer with 1,564, the third all-time rebounder in men's basketball history with 993 rebounds and has the most games played in team history with 131.
Career statistics
| Legend | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game | ||
| FG% | Field-goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field-goal percentage | FT% | Free-throw percentage | ||
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game | ||
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | PIR | Performance Index Rating | ||
| Bold | Career high | ||||||
Note: The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season. He also played in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable.
EuroLeague
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG | PIR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014–15 | Unicaja | 24 | 14 | 20.6 | .511 | .286 | .727 | 4.5 | .9 | .3 | .1 | 6.9 | 9.1 |
| 2015–16 | 24 | 15 | 23.0 | .532 | .212 | .833 | 4.6 | 1.2 | .6 | .1 | 8.1 | 10.1 | |
| 2017–18 | Valencia Basket | 30 | 23 | 23.6 | .473 | .288 | .744 | 3.6 | 1.1 | .8 | .1 | 6.2 | 8.1 |
| Career | 78 | 62 | 22.5 | .471 | .275 | .774 | 4.2 | 1.0 | .6 | .1 | 7.1 | 9.0 | |