There are instances when Marcus Thornton sells out physically — and they are happening with increasing frequency these days — that you’d never know the battle he’s fought with his own body.
Such as Tuesday inside Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum, vs. Arkansas.
He’ll dive on the floor, all 6-foot-8 of him perfectly perpendicular, to steal back a ball that the Bulldogs had given up to Razorback pressure, and look as right as the day and time on your cell phone.
On another occasion he’ll uncoil a dunk that makes the football-centric Georgia crowd almost believe in more rounded ball, and you could almost forget about all the years Thornton spent trying to convince his knees they didn’t belong to a 60-year-old mall cop.
This is the final college hurrah of a one-time high school hotshot whose game got a little off message along the way. To quickly review: The state of Georgia’s Mr. Basketball coming out of Westlake High in 2010, Thornton began his Bulldogs career slowly and from there developed a little bit of a limp. But after taking a late redshirt year to reboot his body, things began to improve.
And so far, his senior year has proved all the locker room cliches about hard work and perseverance. His team (9-4) has not suffered the same kind of early non-conference stumbles that so weakened it last year.
And, following that Tuesday loss to Arkansas, look who leads the Bulldogs in scoring (13.5 points per game), rebounding (7.2 per) and blocks (1.2 per). All those numbers for Thornton represent a bonanza for a guy whose career averages were 4.4 points, 4.3 blocks and .83 blocks entering the season.
There was one victory to take away from Tuesday night — the halftime honor paid Georgia’s better classroom guys, this time featuring Thornton, who has his degree in real estate and is dabbling in the sports-management master’s program. His mother, Meril, a bank chief operating officer, proclaimed it the highlight of the evening. His father, Billy, a semi-retired financial advisor and professor, didn’t hear the announcement; he was distracted talking to a sportswriter.
Dad made good use of that time, though, putting into perspective both the highs and lows of Marcus’ long journey at Georgia.
As for the beginning chapters: “It has been absolutely painful,” his dad said. “I’ve had many, many sleepless nights worried about him, trying to counsel him, get him the right resources, help him make the right decisions, trying to be his advocate.”
And now that his son is playing at the highest level, by far, since arriving in Athens: “We’re excited. First or all you got to get well, but the second thing is getting your confidence back. Seeing that come back at the end of the SEC season last year and through this season has been absolutely delightful for us.”
There is no shortage of simple joy throughout the family.
“The biggest difference between this year and even early last year — certainly four years ago — it’s absolutely fun to play. It’s absolutely fun to practice and a blessing to run up and down the court,” Thornton said.
Originally, Thornton was bound for Clemson. But when the Tigers coach, Oliver Purnell, took a job at DePaul, Thornton asked for and received his release from the commitment. The Bulldogs were a fallback position; and, naturally, his signing with Georgia was a coup for the home state school.
Growing up, he said he never was the marquee player until his final year at Westlake. The fuss and the fertilizing of the ego all kind sneaked up on him. And, then, just as quickly, as his knees began to throb, Thornton went from Mr. Basketball to Mr. Enigma.
Both knees have had their days with the arthroscope — three surgeries in total — to try to address a chronic tendinitis. Finally, early in his junior season 2012, in conjunction with the third surgery, the decision came down to shut down the gut-it-out approach and call it a redshirt season.
“I’ve always told both my kids, ‘Life isn’t fair,’” Billy said. “When they start complaining about hard knocks or bad luck, I just tell them that. Because it ain’t fair.
“Marcus has had to live and understand what that means. So when you’re out there and the ref is giving you bad calls, you just got to roll with it. When you’re having a bad day, you got to roll with it. All the adversity he’s been through here is going to better prepare him for life, no matter what he does in basketball. That’s been the silver lining to all this.”
Recovery after the redshirt was as much mental as physical. The body Thornton once could take for granted now was a little untrustworthy. Even the act of dunking — something that came so easily that Thornton won the AJC’s high school dunk contest — was causing doubt and pain.
“When you’re growing up and learning how to play you build an instinct how to do some of those things,” he said. “And just like you build it, it gets torn apart the same way. Not doing it for so long, then not believing you can do it, you psych yourself out. It was a matter of getting myself to believe again I could go up and dunk a ball.”
On the physical side, now that Thornton and the Bulldogs’ training staff have come up with a knee maintenance plan that has him feeling as good as he has since arriving in Athens, the challenge is to actually protect him from his own overexuberance. Regularly, said Georgia coach Mark Fox, coaches have had to ban Thornton from extra work in the practice gym. Once, they even programmed the lights to stay off so he couldn’t slip in while they were otherwise occupied.
Life may not be fair, but that only makes it a more effective tutor.
Thus did Thornton learn that too much time at Georgia had been wasted on “playing the game and worrying about what could be, what should have been or what might be.”
Instead, he has decided it best to, “just enjoy the game and play it so no matter win or lose, you’re getting the most out of every experience.”
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