A Basketball Family Tradition

Leading up to opening night of the 2020-21 Georgia State men's basketball season, each member of the roster will be featured on a different day with a story, video, and social media elements. We continue the series today with Jalen Thomas who enters his sophomore season on the court with the Panthers.

Sometimes in life an individual is just born into their profession. Maybe they follow in their father's footsteps or in some cases there is a long lineage to that profession going back generations.

For sophomore Jalen Thomas, he was born into a basketball family. Jalen's father Tim played DII basketball at Kentucky Wesleyan College for Wayne Chapman, NBA-star Rex Chapman's dad. His grandfather John Henry Jones played for North Carolina Central and his maternal uncle, Richard Pop Pitts, played basketball at Norfolk State and is in the Norfolk State Hall of Fame as well as the CIAA Hall of Fame.

"Knowing that my dad and my granddaddy played basketball in high school and college, I knew pretty early on that I wanted to play as well," Thomas said. "I started playing when I was about eight years old. Throughout the years I didn't even really take it seriously at first. When I got to high school after my freshman year and going into my sophomore year is when I realized that I had a chance to play collegiately. That is really when I started to work on it more, put more hours into it, and focus on it to get to the next level."

At the high school level, things came easy for Thomas as his size put him above everyone else – both literally and figuratively. However, that transition, like for most, was a little more difficult moving from Detroit to Atlanta.

"The hardest part of making the transition from high school to college was the workouts," Thomas said. "Especially the intensity of the workouts. In high school we had practice, but it was nowhere near the intensity of what we experience now. The physicality of it is so much different as well.

"In high school I was easily the tallest guy on the team and really, even in the league. Weight room wise things are so much different as well. Last year I really needed to work to adjust to that, but I kept working on it and feel better about it going into this season."

With a year under his belt and even making seven starts, it appears as though Thomas has found the key to making the transition to college ball and continuing the proud basketball tradition that runs throughout his family.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

#25 Jalen Thomas: F; 6' 10"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

#25 Jalen Thomas
: 6' 10"; Sophomore
: F

Players Mentioned

#25 Jalen Thomas

Players Mentioned

#25 Jalen Thomas