Knicks' Kurt Thomas Takes Hilarious Heat On Twitter

Many casual NBA observers probably were surprised to see the aging Kurt Thomas take the floor at American Airlines Arena back in blue and orange, much less making buckets.

In fact Thomas, who started for Carmelo Anthony, who was out with a hand laceration, was the Knicks' leading scorer early on. New York was up 12-9 with 5:29 left in the first, but he was tops with four.

And as he was in the spotlight for that brief moment Thursday evening, Twitter exploded with good-natured ribbing about his age.

Kurt Thomas, who turned 40 on Oct. 4, has played for nine teams in his 17-year NBA career, and is back on a second stint with the Knicks.

And Twitter users were sure to remind us about that fact, generating jokes about his “experience” faster than one could keep up scrolling through.

Some gems emerged in this burst of attention to a player with undeniable skill who is reaching the twilight of his lengthy basketball career.

Twitter user @WesPen_215 played on the fact that Kurt Thomas has played more than 1,000 games in his career with the following quip:

“Kurt Thomas will average 30 and 15 next year in the Church Basement League.”InsideHoops.com got some pretty good traction with this backhanded compliment:

Gotta love seeing 76-year-old Kurt Thomas still playing rugged, intelligent and effective basketball.”

But the gentle ribbing took a turn for the negative shortly after he missed an easy lay-up.

“Kurt Thomas missed a open layup wtf lmfao,” @_NY_Nick tweeted.

No matter how long his brush with recognition lasts, Kurt Thomas was back in the spotlight Thursday night.