|
After leaving the turmoil at Baylor behind him, Harvey Thomas went undrafted in 2004. He now plays for the CBA's Yakima (Wash.) Sun Kings.
Thomas (right) has played for seven minor-league basketball teams in the three years.
Thomas (right) hopes to join an NBA summer league team next year. For now, he is in the CBA, getting advice from players such as Moochie Norris, a 10-year NBA veteran.
A basketball journeyman, Thomas cherishes the moments he can spend with fiancee Sheena Devese and daughter Zennia, 3. Devese stood by Thomas during trying times at Baylor.
Ex-JM star Harvey Thomas (with daughter Zennia, 3) says an unfair link to a Baylor teammate's murder hurt his chances of reaching the NBA. |
By ADAM HIMMELSBACH
On June 19, 2003, Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy was reported missing.
Thirty-seven days later, he was found dead in high weeds near a gravel pit in Waco, Texas.
He had been shot twice in the head.
Over those 37 days, two of Dennehy's former teammates were linked to his disappearance.
One was Carlton Dotson. He is now in prison, serving a 35-year sentence after pleading guilty to the murder.
The other was former James Monroe High School star Harvey Thomas.
The skinny 6-foot-8 forward is now in Yakima, Wash., playing for the Sun Kings of the Continental Basketball Association.
He says he is there instead of in the NBA because he was unfairly connected to Dennehy's death.
He says that is why he has become a basketball nomad, and that is why it is not easy to hope for tomorrow.
"I feel sorry for the people it affected, for Dennehy's parents," said Thomas, 25. "But I had nothing to do with it, and it's something that affected my life, too. It's still affecting my dreams. No one's ever heard my side."
SOMETHING COMFORTABLE
Thomas has not spent more than one year in the same city since he was 16.
After he transferred from James Monroe following his sophomore season in 1999, he attended four more high schools.
He also attended four different colleges.
Over the past three years, he has played for seven different minor league basketball teams.
"It was so hard on him to always have to end up somewhere new," said Harvey's stepmother, Tempia Thomas, who lives in Fredericksburg. "He wanted to find someplace he was comfortable."
Thomas left Georgetown University after his freshman season in 2001-02 because he did not get along with then-head coach Craig Esherick, who through a spokesman declined to comment for this story.
Thomas spent the following summer at Daytona Beach Community College. That June, his father, Harvey Sr., died of cancer.
"He was the only consistent thing in my life," Thomas said.
After spending a year at Northeast Oklahoma A&M Community College, Thomas visited Baylor.
His host was a shy 6-foot-11 center named Patrick Dennehy.
On the first night of Thomas' visit, he and Dennehy had dinner, saw a movie and went to a nightclub. It was fun and ordinary.
"[Dennehy] was a suburban-type kid," Thomas said. "I didn't see any angriness in him."
The next day, Thomas played in a pickup game that included Dennehy and Dotson. He liked them both.
He committed to Baylor and arrived in late May of 2003 to start classes and workouts.
He and his fiancee, Sheena Devese, moved into a small off-campus apartment. His nights were quiet.
Over his first two weeks, he spent little time with Dennehy or Dotson.
One morning, Thomas went to a workout and Dennehy wasn't there.
The Baylor players figured he had overslept.
"It was summertime," Thomas said. "You know what I'm sayin', man?"
But Dennehy wasn't at the team workout the next day, either. Or the next.
EYES WIDE OPEN
As the investigation unfolded, Dennehy's girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, told police Dennehy had been threatened by a man named Harvey.
Dennehy's friend Daniel Okopnyi said Dennehy had been threatened by two teammates, one of whom was Thomas.
Darron Cox, who had sold pit bulls to Dotson, told police Dennehy and Dotson had taken target practice at Cox's farm near Waco. They told him they had bought guns for protection.
Thomas insists he never threatened either player.
About a week after Dennehy disappeared, Thomas turned on a CNN judicial show.
His eyes widened.
"They were on there roasting me," Thomas said. "My picture was on there, and it was like: 'This kid needs a lawyer. We think he had something to do with it.' That's when I got scared, because there's people in jail right now that ain't done nothing."
That July 18, a maintenance worker at Thomas' apartment complex found a gun that had been buried. Since Dotson and Dennehy were close friends and Thomas was new to town, the assumption was easy.
"You never wanted to believe Harvey was involved," said Thomas' former AAU coach, Tony Squire. "But there was so much stuff being tossed around that no one knew for sure."
Reporters swarmed Thomas' off-campus apartment, but he never answered the door.
Sometimes, his fiancee would call from outside when it was clear to go to basketball practice.
"His name was getting dragged through everything," Devese said. "We basically just locked ourselves inside."
Thomas was questioned by Waco police. He took a lie detector test.
"At no time was he being treated as a suspect, and I don't recall him giving us any trouble," Waco sheriff's Lt. Clay Perry said by phone.
Perry said their interest in Thomas never progressed beyond that.
The gun found at Thomas' apartment complex did not belong to Thomas, nor was it the murder weapon.
Police later learned that Dotson told a cousin he had shot Dennehy during an argument between the two.
On July 21, 2003, Dotson was charged with the murder.
He pleaded guilty.
Thomas' name was cleared and he hoped that would be the end of it.
THE UNRAVELING
Dennehy's murder led to the discovery of numerous NCAA violations at Baylor. The Bears were placed on probation for two years, including a one-year ban from the postseason.
Head coach Dave Bliss and athletic director Tom Stanton resigned. The team's best players transferred.
Lawrence Roberts went to Mississippi State, John Lucas III to Oklahoma State and Kenny Taylor to Texas.
Thomas said he was considered by a Southeastern Conference school. But for once, he decided not to go anywhere.
"I felt like if I left, it would look like I was running from something," he said. "I had nothing to run from, and I didn't want to start all over again."
When Thomas returned to Baylor for his junior season, he'd sometimes see people on campus staring or whispering.
"We had no preconceived notion of Harvey for whatever was going on before," said Baylor assistant coach Matt Driscoll, who joined coach Scott Drew's staff after Bliss resigned. "We gave everybody a clean slate and said, 'Now's your chance.'"
Thomas averaged 15.6 points and 5.5 rebounds and was named third-team All-Big 12 Conference.
He declared for the 2004 NBA draft as an underclassman. He was not selected.
Though he left Baylor, he does not believe Baylor left him.
THE STIGMA FOLLOWS
After going undrafted, Thomas signed with Czarni Slupsk of the Polish League, but lasted just two games there.
He returned to the United States, where he played for minor-league teams in Rome, Ga.; Little Rock, Ark; Fort Myers, Fla.; Salina, Kan.; and Cleveland, Ohio.
Last winter, he spent six months with a professional team in Mexico.
Inevitably, his new teammates ask him what happened at Baylor. Each time, Thomas sighs and says he doesn't know.
There have been nibbles from more prestigious franchises. One team in the Philippines offered a $15,000-per-month contract. The next day they called Thomas' former agent, Nathan Broussard, and told him they were concerned about Thomas' connection to the Baylor murder.
Broussard said it was common for general managers to ask him about Baylor.
"If that's happening in the Philippines," Thomas said, "imagine what teams are saying around here. With me, it's not the basketball, it's Baylor."
Thomas would not name specific franchises, but said several teams asked him about the Baylor situation and then backed away.
"A lot of times he would call me, all upset, and say: 'Tre, they're asking me about Baylor again. It's not stopping,'" said Thomas' childhood friend Tre Dabney.
But not everyone in basketball automatically links Thomas to the Baylor case.
One NBA Eastern Conference scout who saw Thomas play recently said he did not even know what university Thomas attended.
He did say Thomas would "need some seasoning" if he hoped to reach the NBA.
With each day that passes, Thomas moves further from that difficult month in the summer of 2003. But he also moves further from the average age of an NBA rookie.
Late this past summer, Thomas worked out with the Washington Wizards several times. But he joined them too late to be on their summer league team. He said they told him they would consider him this summer.
But for now, he is in the CBA. For now, he is a Sun King.
LONELY ON THE ROAD
It is two days after Christmas, and Thomas is sitting at the foot of his king-size bed in Room 1014 at a Holiday Inn in Pittsburgh.
Devese, his fiancee, is lying on the bed watching "SportsCenter."
The couple's 3-year-old daughter, Zennia, is walking around the room, alternately hugging her father and exploring.
A picture of Zennia sitting on Santa's lap is taped to a mirror.
There is an Xbox video game system on the dresser, next to a box of Kentucky Fried Chicken. On road trips in the CBA, this passes for dinner.
One hour earlier, the Sun Kings defeated the Pittsburgh Xplosion, 97-93, improving to 16-1. Thomas, who is averaging 10.3 points on team-high 63 percent shooting, did not play well on this night, scoring just two points and committing five fouls.
Maybe it was because the team's cross-country flight landed well after midnight. Maybe it was because he was nervous in front of his fiancee and daughter, who made the two-hour drive from their Cleveland home.
The mother and daughter sat one row behind the Sun Kings' bench. Early in the fourth quarter, Zennia bumped her leg as she climbed over her chair. As her mother held her, she cried and screamed for her daddy.
For Thomas, those are the hardest moments. He is a basketball journeyman, but he wants a home.
So when this CBA season ends in March, he will not try to find another team right away. He plans to take a few months off and then hope for an opportunity in an NBA summer league.
He said he will go to Cleveland, where there is a fiancee who has always supported him and a daughter who has a poster of her father on her bedroom door.
On that poster Thomas is wearing a Baylor uniform, and to the 3-year-old girl, that doesn't mean a thing.
"I need to find a spot and stay in it," Thomas said. "Really that's been the story of my basketball career, and really of my life."
Adam Himmelsbach: 540/374-5442
