Fifteen years and a thousand miles stand between Deon Thomas and his all-too-brief memories of basketball stardom. Or at least, the memories based in America, which are all from college. Thomas' professional basketball success took place across the Atlantic. One of the greatest players to ever wear the orange jersey of the Illinois Fighting Illini, a recently retired Thomas today enjoys relative anonymity at his home in Pembroke Pines. While coaching the J.V. team at the University School on For
Deon Thomas was a Chicago hoops legend. He would become one of the University of Illinois' all-time basketball greats. And for the last decade-plus, he was a globe-trotting, championship-winning professional basketball star. Now he's a JV coach in the Broward 'burbs.Specifically, Thomas is the absurdly overqualified coach of the junior varsity team at the University School on the far west side of Fort Lauderdale. And that's not even the ironic part. It's that Thomas would coach, period, consider
