After three seasons with the Charlotte Hornets, forward JT Thor doesn’t have a contract for the 2024-25 NBA season. His performance on Saturday might help him get one.

With 20 seconds to play in the U.S. men’s national team’s exhibition game on Saturday, Thor made a 3-point shot to give South Sudan a one-point lead to put it on the verge of a monumental upset in a contest that had become increasingly less meaningless by the minute.

But on the other end of the floor, Thor couldn’t keep LeBron James from driving to the basket, and the Los Angeles Lakers forward’s layup with eight seconds remaining provided the winning margin in the United States’ 101-100 victory over South Sudan in London.

Thor started all 27 games for Auburn as a freshman in the 2020-21 season, when he averaged 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks.

Since joining the Hornets in the third round of the 2021 NBA Draft, Thor has averaged 3.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 165 games.

On June 28, Charlotte declined its option for a fourth season on Thor’s contract, which made him an unrestricted free agent.

Against the United States on Saturday, Thor played 18 minutes off the bench and contributed 14 points, two rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block. The block came against James.

The United States and South Sudan are scheduled to square off again at the Paris Olympics in Group C play at 2 p.m. CDT July 31. The United States opens group play against Serbia at 10:15 a.m. July 28 and closes it against Puerto Rico at 10:15 a.m. Aug. 3.

South Sudan also plays Puerto Rico at 4 a.m. July 28 and Serbia at 2 p.m. Aug. 3.

Against South Sudan, the United States was playing the fourth of its five exhibition games to prepare for Olympic competition.

The U.S. team defeated Canada 86-72 on July 10 in Las Vegas and Australia 98-92 on Monday and Serbia 105-79 on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi and plays Germany at 2 p.m. Monday in London.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.