Doug Gottlieb and his Green Bay Phoenix on Sunday reportedly landed a big-name player — one named LeBron.
No, he has no relation to LeBron James, but the addition of LeBron Thomas should provide Gottlieb’s program a promising young prospect around which to help establish backcourt depth for the 2025-26 season.
Thomas spent last season in junior college playing for Vincennes where he averaged 15.9 points and 4.4 assists per game. He was a First Team NJCAA All-American for a team that finished 30-4.
Gottlieb is coming off a trying first year at Green Bay where the team finished 4-28 in a season that included public sparring with the other LeBron, an early-season injury to the team’s best player and lots (and lots) of losing. The team finished with 25 losses in its final 27 games, including a 72-70 home loss in December to Division II Michigan Tech.
There were signs of life from Green Bay down the stretch of the season even if the final record doesn’t reflect as much. They defeated Wright State just after Valentines Day and then beat Detroit Mercy less than two weeks later. In the regular season finale, they took Oakland to overtime before falling 87-84.
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The talent accumulated by Gottlieb and his staff after taking the job last spring as the last hire of the carousel season could only get them so far. That has been top of mind for the coaching staff this offseason as they look to establish momentum entering the second season, and the addition of Thomas — a versatile scorer and proven winner — should help.
He’s the second signee for the program this offseason after adding Justin Allen from Carnegie Mellon earlier this month. Allen averaged 25.4 points per game last season.
The team is also expected to bring back second-leading scorer Marcus Hall and assists leader Preston Ruedinger. Leading scorer Anthony Roy transferred earlier this offseason to Oklahoma State, and rebounding leader Yonatan Levy entered the transfer portal earlier this month after joining the program mid-season.
