But Thornton isn't there to party. Like two of his former LSU teammates, Terry Martin and Garrett Temple, Thornton is in Las Vegas for the NBA's summer league that starts this weekend at UNLV.

"Just working," Thornton said late Wednesday night after practice. The Hornets summer-league team includes Thornton, a second-round draft pick of the Miami Heat, who subsequently dealt him to New Orleans on draft day; and first-round pick Darren Collison of UCLA. New Orleans starts a five-game schedule Sunday.

They aren't "real" NBA games, not even preseason games, but with a contract in hand - the terms weren't disclosed - the summer league will be the realization of a life-long wish.

Thornton, a 22-year-old who graduated from Tara High, said the NBA has been his dream "for 22 years," which means he pretty much claims to have been thinking Basketball right out of the womb.

"It finally came true," he said. "The dream I've had for 22 years finally came to this point."

Nothing is guaranteed yet for the Southeastern Conference's Player of the Year.

While Collison has $1.055 million in guaranteed money coming to him this season through his first-round contract, as a second-round pick Thornton has to make the team to earn a roster spot.

And that's not a foregone conclusion.

Behind returning starting shooting guard Rasual Butler, veterans Devin Brown and Morris Peterson are set to return to the Hornets roster.

And the summer-league roster has seven guards on it, including Thornton and Collison. Martin is also on the summer-league roster. The Monroe native was the primary backup for Thornton and Temple at the wing positions for LSU's 2008-2009 SEC championship team.

Thornton will join Martin on the Hornets' Las Vegas roster, while Temple will be with the Houston Rockets. They are three of five former LSU players playing in summer leagues.

Anthony Randolph is on the roster of the Golden State Warriors' summer team. He was sent to summer league after averaging 7.9 points and 5.8 rebounds as a rookie in 2008-09. He was selected with the 14th pick of the 2008 draft.

The Warriors' summer team will be coached by Baton Rouge native Keith Smart, a star for Indiana's 1987 national championship team.

Chris Johnson, a rookie free agent with the New York Nets, is playing for the combined New Jersey/Philadelphia summer team in a league already under way in Orlando, Fla. In three games through Wednesday, the 6-foot-11 center had accumulated seven points and six rebounds.

The Las Vegas league starts today, although the Hornets don't play until Sunday, and continues through July 16.

In the world of professional Basketball, Thornton still has a lot of work ahead of him, a point his college coach made Wednesday.

"It's a business," said Johnson, who was attending the Lebron James skills camp in Cleveland. "It's just like graduating from college and you go out and get work. But he gets a chance to play Basketball for work. He could be a lot worse off."

That's the point Thornton was emphasizing Wednesday in a moment of reflection. Not many players get to be where he is now, close to making the roster of an NBA team down the road from his hometown.

"That's huge for me," he said. "I can play 45 minutes from home."

First, he has to prove what he can do two time zones away from New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Thornton's 21.5 points per game against SEC competition as a senior makes the 6-foot-4 inch guard a candidate to provide offensive production off the bench. But if he is to find a role on the team in the regular season, it wouldn't hurt if he shows what he can do in the next week.

"That's a big part of it," he said. "I have to prove it in summer league. I have to go out there and show what I can do."