Certainly no one doubts Isiah Thomas was a great basketball player. He was born in Chicago and led his high school team to the state finals in his junior year. Then on to Indiana University, where, as only a sophomore, he was instrumental in guiding coach Bob Knight's Hoosiers to a national title in 1981, also winning the MVP award of the tournament.
Following that, Thomas went pro, and the Detroit Pistons drafted him with the overall #2 selection. Several years later, the Pistons would go on to win back-to-back NBA Championships, with Isiah being a perennial All-Star along the way. Wildly popular with Pistons' fans, Thomas eventually had his number retired and his jersey hoisted up into the rafters of the Palace, the Pistons' home arena. Further, he was enshrined in the basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. He had retired as a player in 1994.
And then the wheels came off.
In 1994, somehow he became part owner and Executive VP of the Toronto Raptors. They were a colossal failure while he was there. In 1998, he supposedly "left".
Then he tried his hand at TV broadcasting. Not so good.
Somehow, in 1998, Thomas bought the Continental Basketball Association, then basically the minor leagues of the NBA. By 2001, under his ownership, that league was further underwater than the Titanic. Poof. It disappeared like the Mayans. Gone without a trace.
Just prior to the CBA pulling what would later be called an "Enron", Thomas talked his way into the head coaching job of the Indiana Pacers. He succeeded Larry Bird, who in the previous year had guided the Pacers to the NBA eastern conference title. For the next 2 years, Thomas couldn't get the Pacers past the first round of the playoffs, though they still had ample talent. Evidently, that was enough for the Pacers' ownership to bring back Bird as President of the club. Bird's first act on the job? Getting rid of Isiah.
Never to be deterred, in 2003 Thomas landed in New York, where he was named President of basketball operations for the Knicks. By 2006, the Knicks had the highest payroll in the NBA, the second worst record, and Isiah had managed to trade away several future draft picks. That's a fairly ugly scenario for a once-proud pro sports franchise to find itself in. By 2008, having compiled a .341 winning percentage, compounded by a sexual harassment lawsuit by a former female Knicks executive (which was quietly settled for about $11 million), and the fans at Madison Square Garden routinely chanting for him to be fired -- Thomas was "reassigned" within the organization to be a "consultant". What's REALLY weird was a condition of his being a consultant was he have no contact with the players, and only report to the guy that put him in the broom closet to start with. But, by god, he was still receiving a hefty paycheck.
That would never do for Isiah. Along came the basketball head coaching job at Florida International University, in Miami. At least Isiah would be in charge of something again. Another chance for redemption. After 3 seasons there, FIU's record was 26-65. What normally happens to a coach with a record like that?
Yet Thomas seems perplexed. He claims it's the first time he ever got fired for basketball reasons.
Really? If not basketball, I wonder what sport he thinks his bio, including all the management failures listed above, is at issue here. Having confidence is a good thing, but this seems to be the worst case of denial in the history of the sports world.
C'mon Zeke. Own it. You were great in a uniform, but once you put on a suit, you stunk it up worse than Pepe Le Pew.
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