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Romaine Thomas, the Jamaican ‘Slim Reaper’
June 30, 2023
Bois Content, Old Harbour, native Romaine Thomas is one of Jamaica's most prolific basketball talents aiming to help the country lift the gold medal at the CAC Games in Panama currently. Questions, however, linger: who is Romaine Thomas, and where did this love for basketball originate?
"I left Jamaica when I was 10 years old and went to the United States of America (USA). While at a community centre, I would sit and watch the guys play basketball, and then I just started practising with them day by day.
"After the middle school year, I went to high school, and in that summer of high school, at about Grade 10, I just couldn't put the basketball down. I was all-around with my basketball, and that was when I fell in love with the grind of the game and what it takes to become one of the greats that play the game.
"You have to put the time in, to get the good out, so I had to put the time in the gym and things like that," he stated.
The 29-year-old Thomas, who stands at six feet, nine inches and plays professionally in France for ES Avignon Basket, revealed that he models his game off Phoenix Suns guard Kevin Durant, who he idolises and gets his monikers from.
"Everybody calls me the 'Slim Reaper', 'Kevin Durant' or the 'Jamaican Sniper'. This is because I like to shoot the outside shots, the pull-ups. I know how to handle the ball.
When asked if there's one player in the world that he would love to face off in a one-on-one game, Thomas said that he would relish the opportunity to face his idol.
"One-on-one with a player right now would have to be Kevin Durant. I would love to be on the same court with him. When I was younger, at around 18 years old, I was at Dyckman Park in New York City, he was there, but I didn't get to play in the Championship game because I was a youngster coming up. I had on the jersey, I was there, but if there is one person that I would play against, that would be him," Thomas stated.
He said that despite being happy he chose basketball as his preferred sport, there are two other sports that he fancied having a crack at.
"If it wasn't basketball, I would have played either baseball or the NFL," Thomas added.
