In January, he welcomed a beautiful baby girl, appropriately given an equally beautiful name, Maleia.

A few months later, he joined the Washington Wizards. After playing only 14 games and hearing the talk from the front office, this basketball nomad — a player who has worn seven different jerseys over seven full seasons — felt he had found his final NBA residence.

AD

Then by the summer, a historic flood devastated the one place he has always called home, Baton Rouge, La.

AD

All those events taken together and it’s no wonder that the same phrase kept rumbling from Thornton’s lips in late September as he considered the recent past inside the college gymnasium where the Wizards held training camp: “It was crazy.”

On March 9, when the Wizards signed Thornton after he had been waived by the Houston Rockets, one of the first welcomes he received came from the team’s star, John Wall. Thornton brought instant offense to Washington. His 10-point scoring average was manna for a team starving for bench production. Although Thornton needed some time to live up to his reputation — he did not score more than eight points through his first four games– he then scored 18 in a March 17 win over Philadelphia and 23, including five three-pointers, six days later against Atlanta. In his own quiet way, Thornton made an impression in the locker room.

AD

“He doesn’t do too much talking,” Wall says about Thornton, adding, “he knows the game … I ask him for advice on what he thinks I can do on certain situations.”

AD

At the conclusion of the regular season, Thornton returned to the open arms of family. Since entering the league in 2009, Thornton has crisscrossed the country from Sacramento to the New York City borough of Brooklyn, with so many stops in between. So, when he’s asked where he considers home, Thornton immediately responds, finally with a little zest in his voice: “Baton Rouge, La.!”

Growing up in a south Baton Rouge neighborhood, he developed his rep.

“That joker could shoot the ball,” childhood friend Jeremy “Slim” Creer recalls.

AD

Though Creer was the older kid on the Tara High School varsity team, when the Trojans needed buckets, he could always rely on his scrawny freshman teammate.

“At the time, [Thornton] was so little, so he shot threes,” Creer says. “When the team needed a big three, Coach would put him in.”

AD

Thornton developed his passion for basketball all around Baton Rouge, a love so deep that he didn’t mind paying the $1.25 fare to catch the city bus to find an open gym.

“You got to understand,” explains Creer, who says kids from his neighborhood didn’t grow up with much, “$1.25 was a lot of money.”

When Thornton left junior college as a hot prospect, he could have signed anywhere. Instead, he decided to go around the corner to Louisiana State University.

AD

“I know Marcus loves Baton Rouge,” says Ricky Lefebvre, the assistant LSU strength and conditioning coach who has trained Thornton the past three summers. “When he gets a chance in the offseason, this is the place he wants to be.”

So in August, Thornton was where you would expect to see him. Newly minted with the 12th guaranteed contract on the Wizards’ roster, Thornton was busy working out at his alma mater when the rain started. He thought nothing of the storms — he’s seen them all his life. But the rain didn’t stop. Three days of record-shattering rain, and aerial views across the city revealed only the rooftops of houses, churches and businesses — the rest was submerged by water.

AD

“It was something we weren’t expecting,” Thornton says. “Some of my people’s houses, the water was nine feet [deep]. Over the roof, over cars.”

AD

Though the water did not disturb much of his subdivision, Thornton had family members who were affected, and making matters worse, he could not immediately contact many of his aunts and cousins.

“That’s when it gets scary,” Thornton remembers. “You can’t reach out to anybody … and now you just have to [wonder] where people are at.”

The natural disaster left 13 people dead in Louisiana and officials estimate that approximately 130,000 homes were damaged or lost.

In the weeks after the storm, several recognizable names joined the efforts for relief. Hall of Famer and former LSU star Shaquille O’Neal co-hosted a charity golf event that raised more than $200,000. Wizards second-year swingman Kelly Oubre, a former Hurricane Katrina evacuee, launched a T-shirt initiative. All proceeds from the sold shirts will be donated to the United Way’s Southeast Louisiana’s flood relief.

AD

AD

“A lot of people forgot about what’s going on in Baton Rouge, La.,” Oubre says. “I know how devastated people can be from losing lives, losing homes and losing their daily way of life through a flood.”

Then, there is Thornton’s boots-on-the-ground approach. Save for a few tweets, Thornton has remained comfortably in the background of giving back. As soon as it was safe to get around the city again, Thornton let his actions do the talking.

“The first thing he said … was how he could help, whether it was people he knew or people he didn’t knew,” Lefebvre says, recalling how his quiet client wanted to help his hometown. “He was trying to reach out and help out those he didn’t know but needed to help.”

AD

Thornton hasn’t publicly shared his efforts but Creer recalls his friend’s generosity spreading from loved ones — which included buying new furniture for an aunt’s flooded home — to strangers who received shoes, clothing and other necessities, courtesy of Thornton.

AD

“I know money’s not everything, but money can’t help,” Creer says. “[Thornton] didn’t ask for no help. He just did it.”

Several weeks ago, Thornton had to leave Baton Rouge behind and conclude his offseason for good, as his eighth professional season looms. And while Louisiana will always have his heart, Thornton would like Washington to become his second home.

As Thornton talks about the future, his voice slows back to a crawl. He sounds content and comfortable. You could say he sounds at home.

“Hopefully this is my last stop, right here,” Thornton says. “This organization has been straight up with me since Day One. I would like to remain here.