With Isiah Thomas back in the front office of the Knicks, people around New York and the National Basketball Association are launching attacks on his character and botched business dealings to illustrate the depth of dysfunction at Madison Square Garden.
Much of what they say is true. Since retiring as captain of the Detroit Pistons, Thomas has failed upward from job to job. His sly smile seems sinister when it once was charming. His track record is not good. That makes him perfect for James Dolan and the Garden.
But it might be appropriate now to recall one of the most bitter and sensitive moments of Thomas' career, when Thomas made a difficult choice even when it hurt him. I was there when it happened, and it is one of the most vivid memories of my sports reporting.
In the spring of 1987, the Pistons and Boston Celtics played one of the angriest playoff rounds ever, the Eastern Conference finals. The Celtics won Game 7 in Boston Garden, 117-114, and the Pistons came off as sore losers. This was their "Bad Boys" era when they were getting good, about to win two consecutive titles.
Minutes after the game, I stood in the Celtics' locker room in the back of a semi-circle of reporters listening to Boston's Larry Bird. I heard Bird say he did not have to apologize for being white. This is not the usual conversation heard after a major victory, so I asked a guy nearby what prompted Bird's words.
"Dennis Rodman said Bird was overrated because he is white,'' the man said.
I walked quickly down the corridor to the Pistons' locker room to find out if this was so. I saw Rodman, dressed in street clothes, moving briskly out the door to exit the building. This was before Rodman's flamboyant era of dyed hair and tatoos. Back then, he was still an awkward, unsophisticated guy trying to find his true personality.
But as Rodman left, Thomas drew to him the growing gang of journalists. He was a veteran captain and he had heard about what Rodman had said. Many black players of that time, perhaps unfairly, also felt that the news media exaggerated Bird's skills due to race.
Thomas realized that Rodman had unleashed a nasty debate that would last more than a day and would bring to a boil the racial animosity that always bubbles beneath the American social surface. And Thomas knew Rodman could not handle it.
So Thomas became the focus of the story. Thomas offered his support of Rodman immediately and said Rodman's feelings were justified. The debate raged for days and it became almost entirely a Thomas story, not a Rodman story.
Although Thomas survived the word storm that followed, the affair tarnished his reputation, perhaps the first major taint to his image. Rodman avoided most of the fallout and evolved into the talented, clownish, troubled celebrity he became in the 1990s.
The long lens of history reminds us that Bird was, indeed, one of the greatest basketball players ever. Thomas, at least in that instance, showed he was willing to take the heat for a teammate, even in a lose-lose situation. Perhaps I am damning him with faint praise in recalling this episode, but I thought, in this instance, he did the right thing, even when what he said was wrong.
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He also ran Larry Brown out of town (fourth-winningest coach in NBA history) as a burnt out coach (who took Charolett to the playoffs last year in his second year as coach).
Guess the prospects for the Knicks were looking too good this year and Dolan wanted to make sure the team takes a step back.
Curiously, the trading was abysmal (like the rest).
Odd that he could evaluate college players but not pros...
Bird did not do so badly at Indiana. Had a lot of injuries and bad luck. Almost as bad as the Celtic following Len Bias.
This might verge on actual reporting if you could describe what psychic method you used to determine Thomas's motive was to dive on a grenade for Rodman, instead of just being a sore loser echoing an ignorant sentiment, which is what everyone else at the time perceived Thomas' gaffe as being.
Thomas' comment spurred Magic Johnson to actually call Larry Bird and assure him Isiah spoke for NO ONE but himself. Pat Riley called Magic to ask a simple question: "What the hell is Isiah thinking?"
Your attempt to spin a moment of small-minded, petty behavior by Thomas into something noble is really inexplicable ... or at least, your writing certainly failed to convey any explanation.
But it also came around later. After losing to Bird in a Finals and going to his longtime barbershop in Michigan, suddenly old men are telling him 'Hey that white boy can play' which Magic could only answer 'Haven't I been telling you that for YEARS?'
But Isiah's comments after losing that series ... Bird claimed not to care, but the funny part was his mother was the world's biggest Isiah fan and just said 'oh Larry, you boys get out there playing and things are said but they don't mean anything.'
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Life is simple when you're a simpleton, like KP in SEA. But human behavior is more nuanced than you realize. Of course, who would know more about this incident than you when you weren't there? Ah! Of course: you must be psychic.
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Isiah Thomas gets alot of criticism (deservedly so) about his executive decisions with the Knicks. But no one ever criticises the horrible job that Larry Bird has done in Indiana. I wonder why?
That said, I don't think so much should have been made of it at the time. I doubt that Bird was all that upset (and, based on what I have read, he had heard it many times before, and was not the kind of guy who particularly cared about what detractors thought).
Isiah was a great basketball player, a legit hall of famer. As an executive, he has not been all that good.
It was stupid not so much for its racism. It was stupid because Thomas knows better.
Bill Russell said "it's strange when the best basketball player is white and the best golfer is black. It's strange, but it's true."
ou may not dig this . . . but dig this
.STRAIGHT NO CHASER: ANSWERING THE QUESTION
Delusional Minstrels
by Desi Cortez, BASN Columnist, desicortez@blackathlete.com
http://blackathlete.net/artman2/publish/Commentary_1/Straight_No_Chaser_Answering_The_Question.shtml
I think you'll find Magic and Bird got equal press, though Boston is a smaller market than LA. There is a tendency to publicize white bball players, like black hockey players or short bball players the Jamaican bobsled team. It just makes sense, they are oddities, interesting, make good press.