Bailey attended North Carolina State University and was a key streaming video player in the Wolfpacks' miracle dog to the 1983 NCAA Championship. That equivalent month, under head coach Jim Valvano, he led Wolfpack in each scoring & rebounds. A Utah Jazz selected him as a Seventh pick of the 1983 NBA Draft. Jazz management reported that he wwhen selected for a quality of his character, too as the quality of his game. This was a beginning of Xvi years of his swimming broker basketball, Xii of people years were sustaining a NBA.

In November 25 1991, he was traded by the Jazz along by using the 1992 second-round draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Tyrone Corbin. There he played for nearly terzetto seasons until 1994, when he left a NBA & played in the Greek league for the 1993-94 season. From either 1995 to 1998 he played in the Italian league, before giving to the Jazz as a free agent on January 21 1999.

At Sextet'Xi", Thurl is often first noticed as a basketball player, but he is a man of as much depth as height. His strong sense of service has led to countless hours of volunteer work and to numerous awards for leadership and contributions to the community. Included in his awards are: the NBA's prestigious Kennedy Community Award, the Utah Association for Gifted Children's Community Service Award, Sigma Gamma Chi fraternity's Exemplary Manhood Award, the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America's American Champion Award and the Italian League's 1998 All Star Games Most Valuable Player. He has directed basketball camps for youth since 1984 where he teaches young people lessons about life and basketball. Many of his students have special needs including coming from disadvantaged backgrounds or having serious illnesses, and they attend the camps on scholarship.

In addition to professional speaking, Thurl is a broadcast analyst for the Utah Jazz and the University of Utah, an actor, and an award winning singer/song writer. His first album, Faith In Your Heart, was a compilation of uplifting songs that won several top awards. His latest CD, ''I'm Not The Same'' was released October 2002 with great reviews and is a fusion of original style R&B and Nu Soul. He is a devoted family man and the father of five children. He and his wife Sindi live in Salt Lake City, Utah with their two youngest children. During his time with the Jazz, Bailey joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and frequently appears as an inspirational speaker at Mormon events.