power forward-center, Thomas was known for his hard-nosed playing style and tough defense during his eight year tenure with the New York Knicks.

Thomas grew up in Dallas, and after graduating from Dallas's Hillcrest High School, he attended Texas Christian University, where he led the NCAA Division I in scoring and rebounding in the 1994–95 season with 28.9 PPG and 14.6 RPG, becoming only the third player in history to accomplish this feat (the other two being Hank Gathers and Xavier McDaniel).

[8] On March 28, 1999, Thomas was disqualified, and later fined $5,000, for a flagrant foul against Dennis Rodman during a 99–91 loss against the Los Angeles Lakers.

[9] In the 2001 NBA Playoffs, Thomas averaged 14.4 points and 11.2 rebounds while starting all five games in a 2–3 first round series loss against the Toronto Raptors.

[13] Thomas was traded by the Sonics to the San Antonio Spurs on February 20, 2008, for Francisco Elson, Brent Barry, and a 2009 first-round draft pick.

Although his playing time was slim during this span, Kurt Thomas won the appeal of Chicago fans with some emphatic highlights which were referred to as "Turning back the Clock" and eventually earned him the nickname "Big Sexy".

[20] On July 16, 2012, Thomas and Raymond Felton were traded to the New York Knicks for Jared Jeffries, Dan Gadzuric, the rights to Kostas Papanikolaou and Giorgos Printezis, and a second round draft pick.