On March 23, Morris Knolls juniors and seniors filed into the auditorium during block two and were introduced to Cornell Thomas, an inspiring motivational speaker who has overcome countless challenges throughout his life. Between working hard to provide for his family and facing adversity in his basketball career, Thomas shared his life story to deliver the message that every bump in the road can change you into a more fulfilled and triumphant person. He was invited to Knolls to inspire students to persevere and keep moving forward through hardships, so he started his story from the beginning.
Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Cornell Thomas’s life was full of ups and downs. After his father died, his mother raised Thomas and his four siblings on her own. Though she was comparatively introverted to his father, his mother raised the family with strength and love, teaching her sons life skills and encouraging them to work hard.
After one of his brother’s caught a glimpse of a drug deal happening at their high school, their mother moved the family to Rockaway. While Thomas remarked that Rockaway was an upgrade from his old town, he was shocked at the differences between the two areas. People at his new school spoke differently than him, and he had never seen a deer before coming to Rockaway, so the move from Passaic was a shocking experience for him.
Though his family was very important to him, Thomas often felt like he did not have an identity of his own because of others’ constant comparison between him and his older brothers. He did not have any profound passions in his early high school career, and felt lost when wondering what to strive for. It wasn’t until he stumbled upon his cousin’s sports newspapers that he realized that he wanted to be an athlete. He began dreaming of playing for his school’s basketball team and going on to the big leagues, but there was a problem: he did not know how to play basketball.
“When you say ‘I am…’ that inspires your reality.” This was the mentality Thomas used when he began learning how to play basketball. He believed that he could earn a spot on his school’s team, and persevered through hours of training on Rockaway’s very own A-Field, shooting hoops and learning how to play the game. After practicing all summer, he made the junior varsity team in his junior year of high school.
Though this was quite an accomplishment (especially considering he had never picked up a basketball before that year), he was one of the only juniors on the team, and he hardly ever had the chance to play. This encouraged Thomas to work even harder throughout his basketball career, and he shocked everyone by coming back the next year as one of the best players. He emphasized, “Nobody’s going to see the work, they just see where you land,” to portray how he felt when others were confused by the “luck” that landed him on the varsity team his senior year.
College basketball coaches saw the skill and effort Cornell Thomas brought to the game, and before he knew it, he was playing his favorite sport at a Division one school in North Dakota with a full-ride scholarship. He was finally on his way to being able to provide for his family while getting to play basketball with a good team. Everything seemed to be going his way, until tragedy struck.
During his time playing basketball in college, Thomas ruptured his Achilles tendon, putting him in both immense pain and preventing him from playing basketball. He needed a year to heal, so his scholarship was lost, as well as his hopes of playing in the NBA.
Thomas himself felt lost in his life. Basketball was the thing he had been counting on to carry him through, and once that was gone, he didn’t know where to go next. Once he healed physically, he was not able to go back to North Dakota to play basketball, so he did the next best thing: he decided to teach basketball.
Though he hadn’t expected it to mean anything to him, Cornell Thomas watched those he coached in adoration of the growth they achieved both on and off the court. He identified with many of the players he coached, who were also from struggling and single parent families, and built life-long connections with them. Although Thomas wasn’t doing what he had planned to do in his life, he used the bumps in the road as fuel to continue pushing forward and reaching other goals.
His injury unknowingly set him up for success as he has since been able to inspire thousands of people to grow from the pain through his motivational speeches and visits to dozens of schools. Cornell Thomas’s story is a reminder that plans may not always follow through in the way that one may hope, but every obstacle and challenge makes you stronger.
Knolls students left the auditorium more inspired and eager to see what challenges and success life may bring them. After Cornell Thomas’s speech, many juniors and seniors shared that they felt inspired by his words, Jillianne Aquino explained “He was able to make his story humorous even though he struggled a lot, which I liked. His experiences were building blocks to get him to where he is today.” Another senior, Ryleigh Buldo, stated, “He was very encouraging and it was really cool that he lived in Rockaway.”
When asked if he had anything he’d like to leave students with, Cornell Thomas shared one of his favorite quotes: “Don’t make a practice out of mediocrity.”
