Isiah’s Coaching Success Gets Him A Top Recruit….WHAT?
11 Aug 2009
Isiah Thomas, as a player, was the gutsy point guard of the Bad Boys of Detroit in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He was a two time champion and a Hall of Famer and a legend in the game. But his coaching success has overshadowed his incredible playing career.
It started after his retirement with the Toronto Raptors, as a part owner and an executive. After four years he left citing differences in the vision of the team in the future. Then Thomas purchased the CBA for 5 million dollars and attempted to legitimize it. After an 11 million dollar offer from the NBA, which Thomas turned down, the CBA went bankrupt. Failure number 2. After that he went to the Indiana Pacers where he failed to carry on the success of Larry Bird andultimately left the team after a first round loss to the Boston Celtics. The New York Knicks was Isiah crowning achievement in the field of misery. As Director of basketball Operations and Coach he managed the team to the league’s highest payroll and the secong fewest wins.
But Isiah has moved on to bring some class back to college basketball (just put a loaded pistol in my mouth). He is currently the head coach of Florida International University. Recently Thomas and FIU have been recruiting the star that no one wants Lance Stephenson, but they lost him to the classiest team in the NCAA, Cincinatti. But in a coup, Thomas got a commitment from the #16 player for next years recruiting class, Dominique Ferguson. Ferguson was quoted saying, “The main thing in my decision to come to FIU is Coach Thomas’ past success in the NBA as a player and coach,” (Wham.shot myself right in the face). Here is the headline from the Miami Herald..