William Benson Thomas (born July 1, 1986) is an American-Georgian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player who plays for

Unicaja Unicaja is a Spanish savings bank based in Málaga and chartered as a caja de ahorros providing retail banking services. The banks full name is ''Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Ronda, Cádiz, Almería, Málaga y Antequera'' after the n ...

of the Liga ACB. He is former college basketball player for George Mason University. He also holds a

Georgian passport Georgian passports ( ka, საქართველოს პასპორტი) are issued to citizens of Georgia to facilitate international travel. Visa requirements As of May 12, 2023, Georgian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival ...

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 The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

summer league roster. He was cut from the team and shortly after signed with Belgacom Liege of the

Belgian League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 Belgian First Division A, 2020 ...

. He signed a contract with

BC Oostende Basketball Club Oostende, for sponsorship reasons Filou Oostende, is a Belgian professional basketball team. The club is based in Ostend and was founded in 1970. The club competes domestically in the BNXT League and internationally in the Basket ...

after playing with Belgacom Liege for 2 years. For the 2011-12 season, he signed a contract with

BC Armia BC Mgzavrebi ( ka, საკალათბურთო კლუბი არმია), also known as Mgzavrebi Tbilisi, is a professional basketball club based in Tbilisi, that plays in the Georgian Super Liga. The club was affiliated to the ...

from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. He helped them win the Georgian Cup. In July 2012, he signed a contract with

Pınar Karşıyaka Pınar is a common feminine Turkish given name. In Turkish, "Pınar" means "Spring" (of water), and/or "Fountain". Notable people called Pınar include: Given name * Pinar Heggernes (born 1969), Turkish-born Norwegian computer scientist * Pına ...

of the

Turkish Basketball League Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and ...

. 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

. 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 Valencia Basket Club S.A.D., commonly known as Valencia Basket (), is a professional basketball team based in Valencia, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague, with home games played at the Fuente de San Luis. The club is spon ...

. 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 Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

of the

VTB United League VTB United League (russian: Единая Лига ВТБ) is an international professional men's club basketball league that was founded in 2008. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus and Kazakhstan. Since 2013, it ...

and the EuroLeague. On July 14, 2021, he signed with

BC UNICS BC UNICS (russian: БК УНИКС) is a professional basketball club in Kazan, Russia, that plays in the VTB United League, and formerly played in the EuroLeague. On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 2022 ...

of the

. On September 2, 2021, his contract was terminated. Thomas signed with AS Monaco Basket of the LNB Pro A on September 11. On July 15, 2022, he signed with

of the Liga ACB.

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

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2014–15 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan=2,

, 24 , , 14 , , 20.6 , , .511 , , .286 , , .727 , , 4.5 , , .9 , , .3 , , .1 , , 6.9 , , 9.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , 24 , , 15 , , 23.0 , , .532 , , .212 , , .833 , , 4.6 , , 1.2 , , .6 , , .1 , , 8.1 , , 10.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 23 , , 23.6 , , .473 , , .288 , , .744 , , 3.6 , , 1.1 , , .8, , .1 , , 6.2 , , 8.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan=2,

Zenit Zenit, meaning "zenith", may refer to: Spaceflight and rocketry * Zenit (rocket family), a Soviet family of space launch vehicles * Zenit (satellite), a type of Soviet spy satellite * Zenit sounding rocket, a Swiss rocket Sports * Zenit (sports ...

, 27 , , 21 , , 27.5 , , .605 , , .342 , , .759 , , 3.9 , , 1.4 , , 1.0 , , .1 , , 10.3 , , 13.1 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 39 , , 39 , , 26.2 , , .603 , , .419 , , .897 , , 4.9 , , 1.4 , , .7 , , .2 , , 9.3 , , 13.4

College career

Professional career

Records

Career statistics

EuroLeague

References

External links