Sport: The Natural Resource

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Plenty of basketball players can pass behind their backs, fake like Houdini, and riffle the net from 20 ft. But Rodney King Thorn, a gangling (6 ft. 4 in., 180 Ibs.) youth of 21, is probably the only one whose talents called forth a special resolution from his home-state legislature. In solemn session, the lawmakers classified him as "a great natural resource," begged him to attend the local university "to further develop his natural athletic ability for the use and benefit of the State and its 2,000,000 citizens."

The state was West Virginia—but West Virginia breeds basketball stars as lavishly as Texas turns out football players, is the home of such slick-shooting pros as Jerry West and Hot Rod Hundley. The way the Mountaineers at West Virginia University look at it Thorn may turn out to be the best of the lot.

Cars & Antics. At six, he was the star of the Rinky Dinks, a touring children's team coached by his father, a policeman in Princeton (pop. 8,231). At 15, he was a high-scoring All-State guard for Princeton High, and the first out-of-state college scouts started coming around. By the time he was 17 and a high school senior, the offers had grown to "slightly more than 100." One school promised him plenty of spending money, another a car. Four offered to pay his way through medical school, provide free housing if he married. One even tried to tempt Thorn's father with a police job in the same county. "At first I enjoyed the attention," says Rod. "But then I decided it was sort of repulsive." He turned them all down in favor of a straight athletic scholarship to West Virginia (tuition, room and board). Besides, it was flattering when the legislature put him in a class with West Virginia's coal mines. "That," says Rod, "was a nice gesture."

But once safely at West Virginia, Thorn seemed something of a gilt-edged bust. An A student in high school, he fretted about missing classes when the team was on the road, stayed up so late studying that his basketball suffered. In a Southern Conference tournament, Thorn fired a shot at the basket from just 20 ft. away —and missed the backboard by 10 ft. Confused and exhausted, Thorn developed insomnia and a chronic sore throat. At length, he dropped out of school for a semester—for fear of getting a C on his record. "I was so sick mentally," he recalls, "that I thought I was sick physically. Finally I called Dad and told him to come get me. I just sat and stared out the window all the way home."

Look, Two Hands. Last season. Thorn was back in school, determined to get a grip on himself. Rival fans called him "Psycho" and "Bugs," but Rod refused to be rattled. "No more hysterics," he says. "No more punching the lockers. If I had a bad night—well, I just had a bad night." Thorn piled up 688 points, sparked the Mountaineers to a 24-6 season and a berth in the N.C.A.A. playoffs.