Three ball on the way from Thomas, Iowa's Big 12 tournament champs at the ice, and he drills it.

Everyone has their own journey.

Everyone has their own path, and I wouldn't trade mine for anything.

Ever since he was little mats, life revolved around sports, especially basketball.

His mother, Martha, was a high school basketball star and his dad, Greg, rarely missed a game.

When my mom and dad split up, we would go there on the weekends on DSI him way.

Go play horse or pig on Sundays.

It always have, like pancakes and bacon, and we dive breakfast and he put peanut butter on his pancakes and then watch NFL Watched the Bears play way definitely were closed.

As a kid, you don't understand, obviously, but he had a lot of trouble with addictions with drugs and alcohol, and he was definitely struggling.

Greg, who worked as a nurse, lost several jobs and eventually his medical license after he was caught stealing painkillers on September 1st, 2005.

Greg Thomas shot himself.

Matt was only 11 years old at that age.

All you know is you lost your dad.

It was really hard.

It was really hard time.

Yeah.

I could only imagine how tough it was on him.

I just tried to be there for him.

You know, with this faras sports go or just as a friend, we're pretty much inseparable at times.

I needed someone there for me at that time, and Dustin was that friend and Todd was a father figure that stepped in for me.

And without them, I don't I don't know where I'd be.

Dustin Gordon and Matt have been best friends since the third grade.

You name a sport?

They played it together.

And Dustin's dad, Todd embraced Matt as his own.

My dad was very selfless.

You would do anything for you at any time.

He was my number one fan.

One of Matt's number one fans.

My with Todd.

He he stepped in as a father figure for me.

E was over at their house all the time.

You know, we play pig or horse in the driveway.

Kind of the same stuff that I was doing with my dad.

He just kind of stepped in and filled that void.

For me, basketball filled a void for Matt to the court.

Was his sanctuary a sacred place?

Basketball was always my outlet, kind of like an escape for me.

All I need is the ball in the basket and I'm good.

It was a blast playing with them.

Those games were packed, and there was a lot of crowd energy at that was just for people trying to get a spot to see Matt play at around 64 Junior number 21.

Matt Thomas the baby.

Every time you had Matt on your team, you knew you had a chance going into any game.

Our team knew our roles very well.

Natural was to score the basketball.

Thomas put it on a show.

Mhm.

When Matt and Dustin were younger, Todd took them to watch the championship game every year.

Winning it in 2012 was their childhood dream.

Realized my dad, he could just tell how proud he was off both of us, and you know, that's that's a moment that I'll never forget.

That moment was one of their last happy memories.

My dad just bought a small fishing boat and took it out for the first time.

It's April, the water's cold and they ended up finding the boat.

But my dad would was not in the boat when they found it.

It was a really tough time for me, but even tougher for my best friend, Dustin.

And I'm glad that we had each other during those times for Matt, you know that.

This is the second time he's he lost the dad.

I couldn't even imagine the pain that he was feeling and and really, all he was worried about was how I was doing.

Throughout it all.

Basketball was a steadfast comfort.

Right corner Matt Thomas, three chords.

Matt went on to make a name for himself as a three point specialist at Iowa State.

After graduating, he played professionally in Spain.

And then, in July of 2019 he found a home in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors.

I've seen behind the scenes I've seen all the work that he's put in throughout the years, just to see that coming to fruition and see all that you know, being being shown to the rest of the world right now and have company more happy for him.

Do you think about what?

Your father what Todd might have said about making it to the MBA?

You realize that they're not here anymore, But I know they're both watching me and extremely proud of what I'm doing and the person I became.