Burlington School's Jamarii Thomas honored his father on the court, heads to UNC Wilmington
Chapel Fowler The Fayetteville Observer
Northwood Temple Academy in the NCISAA 2-A boys' basketball state championship game on Feb. 27, 2021.
Jamarii Thomas stood on a ladder late last month in The Burlington School’s gym, surrounded by teammates as he snipped and pocketed a piece of the basketball net hanging above him.
It was another high point for the 6-foot senior point guard, who’d already won two championships the previous season with Piedmont Classical and committed to UNC Wilmington in December before he scored a game-high 28 points in the Spartans’ NCISAA 2-A state title win.
But Thomas, 18, will be the first to tell you his storybook ending didn’t come easy. Since childhood he’s grappled with the death of a parent, and in high school a serious injury clouded his basketball future.
His perseverance through such struggles made his ultimate success that much sweeter.
As he put it in a recent Tweet: “Y’all don’t know my story. Y’all just know the page you met me on.”
Born in Hickory and raised in Greensboro, Thomas was preschool age when his father, Garry Johnson Jr., died in 2006 at age 27. His father hooked him on basketball, Thomas said, and he still has visceral memories of their car rides to YMCA and rec games: Johnson in the front, Thomas in the back in his car seat and both of them singing along to Young Jeezy, their favorite rapper, without missing a word.
“We knew every single song,” Thomas said a recent phone interview, laughing. “It was crazy.”
Even at a young age the loss of his father “really hurt me,” Thomas said, and he dedicated the rest of his playing career to Johnson. Each time he faced a challenge – such as playing up two age groups as a sixth-grader with Greensboro’s Team Cobras AAU program – he embraced it head-on in honor of his dad.
“When people see me, I want them to see him,” Thomas said. “That’s why I play with so much passion.”
Jamarii Thomas (right) and his late father Garry Johnson Jr. bonded over a love for all sports – and especially basketball.
Thomas’ physical style also lent itself well to football. He played slot receiver and cornerback for High Point Christian, and after a red-hot start to his sophomore season – 555 all-purpose yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions in four games – he had initial recruiting conversations with Clemson, Duke, Georgia, Notre Dame and UNC, among other programs.
Then he fielded a punt, made a cut and tore the ACL and meniscus in his left knee.
After surgery in 2018, doctors told Thomas to expect a year-long recovery. With a motivational boost from his family – his stepfather, Tarique; his little brother, Jailen; and his mother, Aja, who drove him to hour-long physical therapy sessions twice a week – Thomas was back on the court in five months.
He spent four months of AAU basketball in a knee brace, hesitant at first to make cuts but eventually playing well enough to earn some local Division II offers before his junior season at Piedmont Classical.
He averaged 15.9 points and 2.9 assists per game for the Bobcats, who last spring won a 2020 CAASC championship and USA National Prep Tournament title in the same week. But Thomas knew if he wanted to reach his ultimate goal – playing Division I basketball – he’d have to push himself further.
“That's what all the coaches recruiting me said,” Thomas said. “They just wanted to see the competition I was going against this year” before officially extending offers.
Enter The Burlington School, a growing NCISAA program with a young head coach in Ryan Bernardi, a photo/video production team, a national schedule and a roster featuring none other than Kuluel Mading, a three-star forward and Thomas’ former AAU teammate with the New Light Disciples.
“It was like a match made in heaven, you know?” Mading said. “That’s my brother.”
Thomas transferred to TBS last summer and immediately found himself up against the state’s elite. It’s no coincidence his UNCW and Eastern Kentucky scholarships came within a week of him scoring 25 points in a highly publicized showdown with Lake Norman Christian’s Mikey Williams in Rock Hill, S.C.
“Really, I was playing for offers,” Thomas said.
The Seahawks treated Thomas like family from their first conversation, and he clicked immediately with new UNCW head coach Takayo Siddle, despite his recruitment being 100% virtual (“He’s that dude,” Thomas said of his future coach). Proximity to his family and the beach wasn’t a bad perk either.
UNCW officially offered Thomas on Nov. 30, and he committed to the program on Dec. 15.
After his announcement, Thomas took to Instagram for a message to his father, complete with a teal heart emoji to match his future school’s colors: “Pops, we goin’ to college to free! Ma isn’t paying a single penny … I promise your name will be forever lit as long as I’m breathing … Love you, gangsta.”
Before enrolling at UNCW in late May and shifting his focus to the CAA, though, Thomas had a senior season to complete. Thriving in a scorer/facilitator role, he averaged over 20 points per game as the Spartans surged through the back half of their schedule and into the state championship game.
Thomas was lights out in the 72-52 home win over Northwood Temple, and after the final buzzer sounded he climbed a ladder and cut off a piece of the net: a final memento in a championship-filled high school career started and now completed in honor of his father. Then he descended, celebrated a bit more and left the gym that night ready to do the same thing for the same person in college.
Chapel Fowler is a recruiting reporter for The Fayetteville Observer and the USA TODAY Network. Reach him by email at cfowler@gannett.com or on Twitter at @chapelfowler.
Chapel Fowler The Fayetteville Observer
Northwood Temple Academy in the NCISAA 2-A boys' basketball state championship game on Feb. 27, 2021.
Jamarii Thomas stood on a ladder late last month in The Burlington School’s gym, surrounded by teammates as he snipped and pocketed a piece of the basketball net hanging above him.
It was another high point for the 6-foot senior point guard, who’d already won two championships the previous season with Piedmont Classical and committed to UNC Wilmington in December before he scored a game-high 28 points in the Spartans’ NCISAA 2-A state title win.
But Thomas, 18, will be the first to tell you his storybook ending didn’t come easy. Since childhood he’s grappled with the death of a parent, and in high school a serious injury clouded his basketball future.
His perseverance through such struggles made his ultimate success that much sweeter.
As he put it in a recent Tweet: “Y’all don’t know my story. Y’all just know the page you met me on.”
Born in Hickory and raised in Greensboro, Thomas was preschool age when his father, Garry Johnson Jr., died in 2006 at age 27. His father hooked him on basketball, Thomas said, and he still has visceral memories of their car rides to YMCA and rec games: Johnson in the front, Thomas in the back in his car seat and both of them singing along to Young Jeezy, their favorite rapper, without missing a word.
“We knew every single song,” Thomas said a recent phone interview, laughing. “It was crazy.”
Even at a young age the loss of his father “really hurt me,” Thomas said, and he dedicated the rest of his playing career to Johnson. Each time he faced a challenge – such as playing up two age groups as a sixth-grader with Greensboro’s Team Cobras AAU program – he embraced it head-on in honor of his dad.
“When people see me, I want them to see him,” Thomas said. “That’s why I play with so much passion.”
Jamarii Thomas (right) and his late father Garry Johnson Jr. bonded over a love for all sports – and especially basketball.
Thomas’ physical style also lent itself well to football. He played slot receiver and cornerback for High Point Christian, and after a red-hot start to his sophomore season – 555 all-purpose yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions in four games – he had initial recruiting conversations with Clemson, Duke, Georgia, Notre Dame and UNC, among other programs.
Then he fielded a punt, made a cut and tore the ACL and meniscus in his left knee.
After surgery in 2018, doctors told Thomas to expect a year-long recovery. With a motivational boost from his family – his stepfather, Tarique; his little brother, Jailen; and his mother, Aja, who drove him to hour-long physical therapy sessions twice a week – Thomas was back on the court in five months.
He spent four months of AAU basketball in a knee brace, hesitant at first to make cuts but eventually playing well enough to earn some local Division II offers before his junior season at Piedmont Classical.
He averaged 15.9 points and 2.9 assists per game for the Bobcats, who last spring won a 2020 CAASC championship and USA National Prep Tournament title in the same week. But Thomas knew if he wanted to reach his ultimate goal – playing Division I basketball – he’d have to push himself further.
“That's what all the coaches recruiting me said,” Thomas said. “They just wanted to see the competition I was going against this year” before officially extending offers.
Enter The Burlington School, a growing NCISAA program with a young head coach in Ryan Bernardi, a photo/video production team, a national schedule and a roster featuring none other than Kuluel Mading, a three-star forward and Thomas’ former AAU teammate with the New Light Disciples.
“It was like a match made in heaven, you know?” Mading said. “That’s my brother.”
Thomas transferred to TBS last summer and immediately found himself up against the state’s elite. It’s no coincidence his UNCW and Eastern Kentucky scholarships came within a week of him scoring 25 points in a highly publicized showdown with Lake Norman Christian’s Mikey Williams in Rock Hill, S.C.
“Really, I was playing for offers,” Thomas said.
The Seahawks treated Thomas like family from their first conversation, and he clicked immediately with new UNCW head coach Takayo Siddle, despite his recruitment being 100% virtual (“He’s that dude,” Thomas said of his future coach). Proximity to his family and the beach wasn’t a bad perk either.
UNCW officially offered Thomas on Nov. 30, and he committed to the program on Dec. 15.
After his announcement, Thomas took to Instagram for a message to his father, complete with a teal heart emoji to match his future school’s colors: “Pops, we goin’ to college to free! Ma isn’t paying a single penny … I promise your name will be forever lit as long as I’m breathing … Love you, gangsta.”
Before enrolling at UNCW in late May and shifting his focus to the CAA, though, Thomas had a senior season to complete. Thriving in a scorer/facilitator role, he averaged over 20 points per game as the Spartans surged through the back half of their schedule and into the state championship game.
Thomas was lights out in the 72-52 home win over Northwood Temple, and after the final buzzer sounded he climbed a ladder and cut off a piece of the net: a final memento in a championship-filled high school career started and now completed in honor of his father. Then he descended, celebrated a bit more and left the gym that night ready to do the same thing for the same person in college.
Chapel Fowler is a recruiting reporter for The Fayetteville Observer and the USA TODAY Network. Reach him by email at cfowler@gannett.com or on Twitter at @chapelfowler.
