JT the Jokester: How JT Thor left home at 14 to pursue NBA dream
Where were you when you were 14?
If you’re like most people, you were in junior high or entering your freshman year of high school.
But JT Thor was leaving Anchorage, Alaska, where he had lived since he was 5, and moving across the country to play basketball at Huntington Prep in West Virginia.
Thor planned to live with his brother who had played JUCO basketball in Texas and currently resided in West Virginia, while the rest of his family remained in Anchorage.
All in pursuit of his dream: Playing in the NBA.
Thor played two seasons at Huntington Prep before transferring to play at Norcross High in the Atlanta area.
While it would be easy for someone who’s across the country from their family at such a young age to struggle, Thor remained focused.
From get-go, Norcross head coach Jesse McMillan could tell Thor was focused on something bigger.
“I think it goes back to the character of him and the type of kid that he is,” McMillan said in an interview with AuburnSports.com. “He came in with a very mature mindset and kind of knew where he was in his career and you know, he wanted things to go well his senior year academically and basketball wise. So some kids come in and want to joke around and not take things serious, but I got the impression immediately from JT that he was a motivated and disciplined kid both in the classroom and on the court.”
During his time at Norcross, he shined on and off the court.
On the court, he earned All-State honors in Georgia, averaging 14.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
Off the court, he was transitioning to a public school system, but making the transition smoothly.
“We still talk about — one of his counselors — he had been in a private school situation prior to Norcross and we’re a public school and you know, you have different types of standardized testings that are specific to different learning environments,” McMillan said. “Our counselor told me that he [JT] came in cold for one of the standardized graduation tests and really, you know, had one of the highest scores out of the entire school and was going against kids that had prepped for it and prepared for it and he kind of came in cold and knocked it out of the park. Just a really intelligent, bright, motivated kid.”
Helping to ease the transition, Thor’s family moved from Alaska to the Atlanta area early into his season at Norcross.
They were able to help Thor during the recruiting process that ultimately brought him to Auburn.
Thor was originally supposed to be in the class of 2021, but chose to reclassify into the 2020 class.
Oklahoma State seemed to be the favorite to land Thor — the No. 55 player in the class — for quite awhile.
Shortly before COVID-19 shut things down in March of 2020, Thor took an unofficial visit to Auburn.
Bruce Pearl, along with point guard Sharife Cooper worked hard to bring Thor to Auburn.
“Shoot man, I wish y’all knew how much I recruited JT,” Cooper said of Thor after the Georgia game in January. Thor scored 11 points and had eight rebounds in 16 minutes that game. “I seen him. The first time I seen him was I think Norcross, he was playing. We played before him and I’m like, ‘Yo, who is that?’ I seen him dunking and laying it up. His jumper was looking good so I was like, ‘Man, we need him.’”
While Cooper was unable to play the first 11 games of the season due to an eligibility review being conducted by the NCAA, Thor was adjusting to the college game.
Not only was Thor having to adjust to a faster, more physical game, he was playing at 18 years old against players 23 and 24 years old.
The adjustments came with some growing pains as he struggled with getting into early foul trouble and trying to get into a rhythm early, but Thor remained in the starting lineup and continued to improve as the season went on.
In the non-conference and early portion of the season Thor had strong games against the likes of Gonzaga, South Alabama, Troy and Texas A&M, but as soon as Cooper returned Thor began to surge.
With a true point guard leading the way, Thor was able to flourish.
In Cooper’s debut against Alabama, Thor had the strongest game of his career up to that point. He stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, nine rebounds, four blocks, three steals and two assists while shooting 4-of-7 from the field, 1-of-3 from deep and 6-of-7 from beyond the arc in 23 minutes.
After the game, Thor said he was finally starting to feel comfortable.
“A lot. I’d say a lot,” Thor said on how much he felt he had improved. “I’d say the first couple of games, I didn’t find a rhythm, really. I was kind of just running around like a chicken with his head cut off. But now I feel like I’m making a big impact on defense and offense. So I’m happy about that.”
But the Alabama game was only the beginning for the youngster.
After scoring more than 10 points just one time prior to the Alabama game, he’d go on to score more than 10 in five of the next six games.
In that stretch was a 12-point, 5 rebound and 4 block performance against then-ranked No. 12 Missouri.
Just as Thor felt like he was getting in a rhythm, some freshman fatigue and a scoring skid struck.
Following a 13-point game against Baylor, Thor scored four in a loss to Georgia, eight in a loss to Ole Miss and two in a win over Vanderbilt.
Next up was a road trip to Kentucky, and Pearl said Thor’s recent slump could be attributed to fatigue and also joked he needs to eat more lamb.
“Well, I’ve got plenty of fat. I can burn plenty of fat and I’ve got plenty of energy,” Pearl said. “He [JT] don’t have no fat. He don’t eat no meat. No, remember that? ‘You don’t like meat? I’ll make you lamb.’ He needs to eat some lamb.”
Lamb wasn’t on the pregame menu, but Thor feasted against Kentucky.
Thor finished with a career-high 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting and shooting 5-of-6 from downtown. He tacked on nine rebounds, two blocks, an assist and a steal, nearly willing Auburn into a huge comeback in Rupp Arena.
“That’s why he’s one of my best pro prospects, NBA prospect, because he has the ability to elevate his game,” Pearl said after the game. “He was obviously excited about playing Kentucky, led us in rebounding with nine. Obviously, he shot the ball great, made free throws. You have 24 and nine as a freshman in Rupp? That’s pretty good. Pretty good. Got a great future—and a pretty good player right now, I’ll tell you. Really proud of JT. He’s a great teammate, too. He’s a great teammate. He’s so unselfish. Man—he’s really good.”
Thor carried the confidence into the final stretch of the season, scoring 10 points against LSU, Florida, Tennessee and Mississippi State to end the year.
Even after being away from his family for a majority of his high school career, and going through an up-and-down freshman season of college basketball, Thor had kept calm and battled adversity.
“I think you got to go through adversity. To succeed, you got to fail. Everybody knows that,” Thor said.
Part of getting through that adversity was keeping a good sense of humor. Because, deep down, Thor is a jokester.
With COVID, it was more difficult to see what the locker room dynamic is like and how the players are off the court. But after the Kentucky game, Pearl said Thor’s one of jokesters of the locker room.
“And oh by the way, he’s also quietly one of the funnier guys in the locker room,” Pearl said. “That hasn’t got out yet but JT can make us smile.”
McMillan said Thor was the same way at Norcross.
“I mean, JT is a super gregarious and outgoing kid,” McMillan said. “I don’t know how much he shows of that personality out in the open at Auburn, but here, just in the locker room and around the school, just a great sense of humor and you know, very talkative — very funny. He was a really fun kid to coach.”
And a noted jokester himself, former Auburn guard Jamal Johnson agreed. But not without making a joke, himself.
“Yeah, JT’s like my son. I raised him, so like, he jokes around a lot and whatever,” Johnson said. “He’s a child. He jokes around, but he’s funny. Yeah, he does a lot of joking.”
Now that the season’s over, the jokester is quickly back to work pursuing his NBA dream.
On March 23, Thor declared for the NBA draft with the option to return to Auburn.
“As many of you know, playing in the NBA has always been my dream and I feel that my time is now,” Thor said in his announcement post. “This will provide me with the opportunity to continue doing what I love at the highest level while also taking care of my family. My dream has never been so close and I look forward to this next chapter with confidence and determination.”
Thor will be able to go through the NBA Draft process up until July 19, when players are required to choose to withdraw their name from the draft or remain in it.
Whether or not Thor stays in the 2020 draft, both Pearl and McMillan know the NBA is in Thor’s future.
"Ah. JT's going to be a pro. We all know it. Cuz he's got it,” Pearl said after the season finale against Mississippi State. “He's got some instincts. He's got some feel. And we start putting -- look, he was plus 12 in the game today. We were better with him in the game today. And, you know, I tell you, he's fun to coach. He's a really good teammate. He's willing to work. All I can tell ya, I just want to remind people, at age 14, he left home to try and become a great student-athlete and a great basketball player. Left his home, left his family in Alaska. These guys have earned everything that they've gotten. Because they've worked hard. And JT's a good example of that.”
And for McMillan, he believes Thor may have one of the highest potential skillsets in the future.
“Yeah, I mean you’re not going to see too many kids that have a higher ceiling, to be honest,” McMillan said. “You know, his body type is what really sets him apart first and foremost. Just the elite length, the athleticism, the dexterity at his size and he showed that very quickly at Auburn… I don’t feel like he’s ever going to be a kid that has just huge size and shoulders and chest and things like that, but he’s going to be able to put on a lot more weight that’s going to help him take contact at the next level.
“I feel like if you’re trying to put together a basketball body, he has it. When you look at what is successful at the NBA level, it’s that length, it’s that ability to guard multiple positions, it’s that ability to get in the passing lanes and take up space defensively, all those things that teams want to look for when they’re filling out their roster. So, he checks a lot of boxes in that regard for sure.”
If Thor opts to stay in the draft, he’ll continue to build on the Auburn talent Pearl has produced and put in the NBA.
If he returns, Pearl will have another season to continue helping him grow and be around a player he loves to coach.
“I love coaching that kid. I do,” Pearl said.
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