Not that yours truly is too lazy to do his own research, but when somebody else has already looked up a bunch of those pesky statistics and all one has to do is acknowledge the original author before re-using some of his/her work -- writing an article becomes a whole lot less tedious. This is some Journalism 101 ethical nonsense called "crediting one's sources" that editors seem to be big on for their own strange reasons.
However, it is what it is and so be it. Therefore, thank you Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press for doing some of the heavy lifting. On to Isiah.
He's back in professional basketball. Sort of. This time around, Thomas is going to run the WNBA's New York Liberty -- the girls team. In his infinite wisdom, James Dolan has said so. You remember him. He's the chairman of Madison Square Garden and has long owned the NY Knicks, which are currently the sorriest team in the NBA. Not even the Zen master himself, one Phil Jackson, could keep them from being laughingstocks this last season. But Dolan seems to have a thing for Thomas. This certainly isn't his first go round in the Big Apple.
Let's look back at some of the highlights and lowlights of Thomas' career. They can pretty much be divided into two distinct, and quite opposite categories. Lots of highlights as a player. Mostly lowlights whenever he was in charge of something.
Thomas was part of a national championship team while playing at Indiana in 1981 under legendary coach Bobby Knight.
The year before, he had made the (pre-professional at the time) USA Olympic basketball team. But the politicians got in the way and the US boycotted those games which were held in Moscow.
After his sophomore year at IU, Thomas went pro. On to the Detroit Pistons, where they would eventually win back-to-back NBA championships in 1989-90. The Pistons had finally conquered their eastern conference nemesis Boston Celtics, and would take the final step to defeat the dreaded LA Lakers a couple years later. (A guy named Michael Jordan and his crew in Chicago were starting to make some serious noise. We know how that worked out in the 90s.)
After hanging it up as a player in 1994, Thomas would have his number retired and hoisted into the rafters of the Palace, home of the Pistons.
He would also be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.
There is no question that, as a player, Isiah Thomas accomplished great things and was hugely successful at every level.
That's the good news. Now the bad.
Shortly after retiring as a player, Thomas became part owner and executive vice-president of the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors would flounder horribly for four years while Thomas was in the front office and he was eventually forced out in 1998.
But Isiah had bucks so he decided to try something different. He bought the entire Continental Basketball Association, then considered the "minor leagues" of the NBA. After only three years with Thomas at the helm, the whole league went bankrupt and folded in 2001. Nice job, Zeke.
In the meantime, he had caught on as the head coach of the Indiana Pacers, succeeding Larry Bird. The year before Bird had guided the Pacers to the eastern conference title. Despite having a wealth of talent (Jermaine O'Neal, Brad Miller, Ron Artest, and Reggie Miller to name a few) Isiah's Pacers would never make it past the first round of the playoffs.
Finally exasperated, Indiana ownership brought Bird back as team president. His first act? Firing Thomas.
He wouldn't be out of a job long. Enter the above-mentioned James Dolan. Incredibly, JD made Isiah the Knicks president. From 2003 to 2008, while Thomas sat in the Madison Square Garden "oval office" the team would never win a single playoff game. Their overall winning percentage under Zeke's watch was a pitiful .341. This, despite having the league's highest payroll. Dolan also let him be head coach for a couple years. His record behind the bench? 56-108. If he couldn't get it done as the head coach of Indiana with vastly superior talent, why would JD think Thomas could possibly turn the rag-tag overpaid and underwhelming Knicks into contenders? Hello?
Thing is, as president, Thomas had made one bonehead move after another. He traded away future draft picks, brought in veteran players that he grossly overrated, and gave them ridiculous long term mega-salaries. In short, he not only oversaw the Knicks going into the toilet, but had crippled them salary-cap wise to improve in future years. Finally, mercifully, at least for Knicks fans, Thomas was fired. But Dolan couldn't let him completely go. Though Isiah wasn't allowed to have any contact with the team, he stayed on as some sort of mysterious "consultant". A paycheck, likely of the large variety.
Adding insult to the alpha-male Peter Principle, pun intended, Thomas had also been accused of sexual harassment by a female MSG employee. Thomas maintained his innocence and was never found liable, but the Garden, see James Dolan, coughed up $11.6 million to make it go away. Draw your own conclusions.
Undeterred, the loveable Isiah decided to try a new adventure. How about coaching a college team? So he talked Florida International into hiring him. He would go 7-25 in his first year. Then somebody noticed that one can't be a college head coach and a consultant for a professional team at the same time. The conflict of interest was blatant, and even the NBA has pesky by-laws forbidding such a thing. This was a problem.
But not for Isiah. He claimed if he ever WAS a consultant for the Knicks he wasn't anymore. So theoretically, all ties to Dolan, the Knicks, and MSG had been severed. We thought. Maybe.
Isiah opted to stay at FIU. Alas, he would go 11-19 in his second season and be canned from there as well.
So add it all up and what do you have in Isiah Lord Thomas III?
A brilliant playing career at every level. He even broke new ground back in the day. Remember him smooching with Magic Johnson at center court before a playoff game? Granted, times have changed since then and people have become much more tolerant of certain things. Then again, how many NBA opponents have you seen kissing on each other since? Perhaps it's best that some things don't catch on and become the norm in the sports world. I mean, c'mon. Does anybody really want to see Lebron James and Joakim Noah trading big sloppy wet ones in Chicago or Cleveland before they go to battle?
But on the management side of things, Isiah has royally screwed up everything he's touched over the last couple decades.
And now Dolan has named Thomas the president of his girls team. Good luck with THAT, ladies. If you thought your team struggled over the last few years, wait until you get a load of THIS guy running the show.
Given his sordid history in running all things business into the ground, how Isiah Thomas continues to keep getting executive positions would seem to be a question for the ages.
Player. Winner.
Business man. Loser.
He must give one hell of an interview.......
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