Tyrus Thomas subtly rises from his table to peer out the glossy glass doors of Everything Philly — an authentic, Philadelphia-inspired restaurant in College Row at Northgate, set for its grand opening Saturday.
As the smell of original-recipe pizza wafts through the eatery, the 6-foot-10 Thomas motions to a water tower in the distance.
The looming reservoir, adjacent to Thomas H. Delpit Drive, is ordinary enough to most. But for the former LSU shot-blocking titan, it’s a fond reminder of his conquered past.
Thomas used to live in a duplex directly under that white tower and went to McKinley Senior High School just down the street. He said people from his neighborhood rarely leave, and if they do, they don’t come back.
Now, Thomas points to that tower from the restaurant he co-owns with his friend and self-described mentor, Ameen Walker, a 50-year-old Philadelphia native who has served as Thomas’ business adviser and partner for roughly two-and-a-half years.
At an early age, Thomas feared the tower would tip over. But now he just smiles at it, realizing how far he’s come.
“I’ve looked at it when I’m running the bleachers at Tiger Stadium, and I can stand at Tiger Stadium and look down on top of the water tower,” he said. “It’s pretty cool, man, being able to look down at something that you once were afraid of. And now, you’re just moving freely.”
Thomas, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2006 NBA draft, is more than a year removed from his last stint in the NBA and recently returned from playing professional basketball in Germany. He’s ten years, to the day, removed from when the Tigers walked into the RCA Dome in Indianapolis for the program’s first appearance in the Final Four in 20 years.
The 2006 Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year doesn’t think about his collegiate days often, despite his introspective nature. He’s home, opening a restaurant in his neighborhood and living an “excellent moment” in life as an entrepreneur.
At 29, Thomas hasn’t given up on basketball, but he’ll let that sort itself out when the time comes.
“I think for a long time with Tyrus, he felt like he left the league wrong,” Walker said. “When I met him, he wanted to get back in the league strictly so that he could leave on his own terms, and people would say, ‘He was a great guy. He was a team player. He was all of this stuff.’ Now, he wants to get back into the league because he wants to still play. He has the passion for it.
“And there’s a big difference, if you understand what I’m saying.”
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The significance of being a part of the most successful LSU basketball team in three decades isn’t lost on Thomas.
He’s done his share of interviews about the topic, the 10-year anniversary of the fourth-seeded Tigers’ remarkable run under then-coach John Brady. Thomas recorded 99 blocks that season, ranking fourth in program history behind only Shaquille O’Neal’s three seasons.
LSU defeated No. 1-seed Duke in the Sweet Sixteen and No. 2-seed Texas in the Elite Eight, and eventually fell to No. 2-seed UCLA in the Final Four.
Thomas, the NCAA Atlanta Regional Most Valuable Player, collected nine points and 13 rebounds against the Blue Devils and 21 points and 13 rebounds in overtime win versus the Longhorns.
Really, all of that is “bittersweet” to him because his team, a fraternity of kids from Louisiana, didn’t accomplish their ultimate goal.
Though the Tigers shared a bond in the months following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Thomas was ready to move on when the NBA came calling. He said he didn’t have many luxuries growing up, and his grandmother had been working at the Tri Delta sorority house for about a quarter of a century.
“I tell people, ‘I was the man at LSU,’ but at the same time, my grandmother was on the side of campus scrubbing toilets,” Thomas said. “So, when you get out of that situation, it’s pretty cool.”
As he reflects on his career in the NBA, which some deem a bust, he now knows where he erred and where others misjudged his character.
Drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers and immediately traded to the Chicago Bulls, Thomas experienced the highs and lows of the NBA lifestyle, as well as the attention that comes from a career that never quite reached its ceiling.
And then there was the media, which he believed never attempted to get to know him, forming opinions or basing facts on reports, rumors and innuendos. Walker said Thomas used to consume himself with coverage by reading blogs. To Thomas, some reporters acted like students who didn’t know how to show work on a math exam, leaning on someone else for the answers.
He didn’t learn that perception is reality until later in his career, which is why he stays away from social media.
“I joke about it all the time,” Thomas said. “People just aren’t smarter enough to think for themselves, like they’re not smart enough to form their own conclusions. I don’t even want to say smart. They’re too lazy. It takes effort to get to know someone.”
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Thomas acknowledges the two-year period after the Charlotte Bobcats amnestied him in the summer of 2013 with two years left on his contract, including when he needed surgery for a cyst on his spinal cord, were rough. In the meantime, he reignited his passion for photography, using it as a method to “cherish good moments.”
Business, under Walker’s tutelage, quickly became Thomas’ other priority, and Walker said the player received some bad advice and was taken advantage of at certain points during his NBA career.
Not a basketball fan, Walker didn’t know who Thomas was and wasn’t even taking on new clients when they first met. To the business-savvy Walker, Thomas was just another person with skills in a certain area, and there were two things Thomas needed to know.
“You’re here because you need some business help,” Walker told Thomas at their first meeting. “If we’re going to do that, we’re going to do that mutually. The second thing is, I’m glad you made your money and done all that, but you have to always be thinking about, ‘I want to be altruistic and help people,’ but at the same time, you have to have a good business mind and you have to be growing your wealth.”
After a stretch in the NBA Developmental League with the Iowa Energy, including a 10-day contract with the Memphis Grizzlies, he ventured to Germany in September 2015 for a six-month term with Eisbäeren Bremerhaven. As his time overseas wound down, he showed more interest in Walker’s plans with Everything Philly and eventually jumped in head first.
Walker didn’t mind him coming onboard a little late in the process. He’s hoping to leave full ownership to Thomas once he retires.
Walker and his wife, Patrice Morgan, treat Thomas like family. When Thomas is around, Walker and his wife, a nurse and fellow business owner, don’t talk about basketball often. The Walkers’ home is a “safe place” for Thomas, Walker said, but Thomas is becoming his own success story in business, also dabbling in the gold and silver markets.
“It’s funny because a couple of weeks ago when we were working on this project, he came up with some things and I told him, ‘You don’t even need me anymore,’” Walker said. “Because he has matured as a businessman. He’s a good businessman. He makes sound decisions now that he didn’t make three years ago.”
Opening a restaurant was always a dream of Thomas’, and failing doesn’t scare him, unlike the area under the water tower once did.
“I want you to come down here at night,” he urged. “And I want you to go on that side of Highland Road — on that side of [East] Roosevelt [Street], the diagonal that way, toward [East] McKinley [Street] — and just get out your car and walk around for like 30 minutes when it’s probably like 10 o’clock at night.
“Nothing else is going to scare you after you do that.”

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Freshman forward Tyrus Thomas limps off the court Feb. 25, 2006 in the PMAC under the gaze of coach John Brady after injuring his ankle against Kentucky.