No time to celebrate

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 10, 2009 - Page: 1C

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Marcus Thornton didn’t really have much time to celebrate his first pro basketball contract Wednesday.

He was in Las Vegas, which, in theory, should be a great place to throw such a party.

But Thornton isn’t there to party. Like two of his former LSU teammates, Terry Martin and Garrett Temple, Thornton is in Las Vegas for the NBA’s summer league that starts this weekend at UNLV.

“Just working,” Thornton said late Wednesday night after practice. The Hornets summer-league team includes Thornton, a second-round draft pick of the Miami Heat, who subsequently dealt him to New Orleans on draft day; and first-round pick Darren Collison of UCLA. New Orleans starts a five-game schedule Sunday.

They aren’t “real” NBA games, not even preseason games, but with a contract in hand — the terms weren’t disclosed — the summer league will be the realization of a life-long wish.

Thornton, a 22-year-old who graduated from Tara High, said the NBA has been his dream “for 22 years,” which means he pretty much claims to have been thinking basketball right out of the womb.

“It finally came true,” he said. “The dream I’ve had for 22 years finally came to this point.”

Nothing is guaranteed yet for the Southeastern Conference’s Player of the Year.

While Collison has $1.055 million in guaranteed money coming to him this season through his first-round contract, as a second-round pick Thornton has to make the team to earn a roster spot.

And that’s not a foregone conclusion.

Behind returning starting shooting guard Rasual Butler, veterans Devin Brown and Morris Peterson are set to return to the Hornets roster.

And the summer-league roster has seven guards on it, including Thornton and Collison. Martin is also on the summer-league roster. The Monroe native was the primary backup for Thornton and Temple at the wing positions for LSU’s 2008-2009 SEC championship team.

Thornton will join Martin on the Hornets’ Las Vegas roster, while Temple will be with the Houston Rockets. They are three of five former LSU players playing in summer leagues.