Amen and Ausar Thompson made waves during their sophomore seasons in the NBA, and they hope to do the same on the international stage someday. During a meet and greet session organized by the Jamaica Basketball Association and the Bob Marley Foundation at the S Hotel in Kingston on Sunday, the twins stated they’re open to representing Jamaica.
“Ever since I was a kid, I used to watch the Olympics and see Usain Bolt, [Yohan] Blake,” Amen said. “And I always was like, Jamaica represents gold medal culture to me… I always wanted to see a basketball team, I always wanted to picture basketball players with the Jamaica jersey on, and I’ve always wanted to wear one too.
“So, just getting the opportunity, you know,” Amen continued. “I could either play for USA [or] Jamaica, but being able to be here and even it be an option, means a lot to me.
Jamaica Observer’s Daniel Blake reported that Amen and Ausar have started the process of obtaining Jamaican citizenship. They are eligible thanks to their father, Troy Thompson, who is Jamaican. Their uncle, Mark Thompson, also represented the nation in the men’s 400 meter hurdles at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
“Yeah, it definitely means a lot,” Ausar said. “It’s something I would be open to doing 1000 percent. Just the culture, like he said, gold medal culture since I was a kid.”
As things stand, though, only one of the brothers will be able to play for Jamaica. FIBA rules stipulate that a team can only have one “naturalized player” on the roster at their tournaments and the Olympics. It means that just one foreign-born player with bloodline connections to the country can be on the team.
The Thompson brothers were born in Oakland, California, and will need FIBA to change the rule if both are to represent Jamaica together. Time will tell if that happens.
Jamaica sure would love to have both of them on the roster. LeBron James once stated that Amen and Ausar “aren’t like the rest of us,” and for good reason. Their athleticism is just off the charts.
Amen averaged 14.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game for the Houston Rockets in 2024-25. He was voted into the All-Defensive First Team and is just the seventh player aged 22 or younger in NBA history to make it.
Ausar’s 2024-25 campaign wasn’t quite that impressive, but he still ended up with solid averages of 10.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game for the Detroit Pistons. He missed the first 18 games due to a blood clot issue that had cut short his rookie season, and you’d expect Ausar to get more and more comfortable on the court with time.
Team USA would surely love to have these two among their ranks, too. They’re the kind of tough, defensive players you want next to the superstars. With the rest of the world slowly but surely closing the gap to the U.S., they would want to put out the best possible team at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
