Isiah Thomas Fired Again, Hopefully This Time He’s Gone For Good
By Matt Hamm
Former Detroit Pistons superstar, New York Knicks head coach/general manager, and Florida International head coach Isiah Thomas has been fired by the university after three awful seasons as it’s coach. Of course, in typical Thomas like, moron fashion, he stated that he was stunned by the firing and thought he had five years to turn around the program, not three. This after Thomas went 26-65 in three seasons and failed miserably in his stated goal of bringing high profile recruits to FIU.
My first memory of Isiah Thomas can be traced back to the 1990 season when Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls team beat Thomas’ Piston team for the first time in a playoff series. Detroit, coming off two consecutive championships, the “Bad Boys” had defeated Jordan’s Bulls in each of the last two postseasons. When the series was over, Thomas led the Pistons off the court, failing to shake hands and show respect to Jordan, Scottie Pippen and the Bulls. The Pistons were a down right dirty team, they embraced that role, anyone who’s read the infamous “Jordan Rules” book published after Detroit employed a strategy of not stopping Michael. Because nobody could do that, instead, they simply beat Jordan half to death most of the time (and still got their a%$** kicked!)(side note: in light of all this bounty crap that’s happening with the Saints right now in the NFL, I wonder how a “bad boy” team would be regarded in today’s society?).
Although Michael would never confirm it, when Thomas was mysteriously left off the original Dream Team in 1992 it was rumored that Jordan told Team USA if Isiah was on the team, he wasn’t going to be. Easiest decision Team USA ever made. Then when he finally retired he became a half way decent coach in the NBA with the Toronto Rapters and Indiana Pacers. Upon his arrival in NY, Isiah was met with huge expectations, and he fell flat on his face. For some reason, Dolan, the idiot running the Knicks has a man crush on Thomas. I for one enjoyed the man crush, what it did was drive Dolan to find a place in the Knicks organization at all costs. Isiah was shuffled around the organization from coach/GM (VP whatever you want to call it), then just VP, then consultant, back as VP it was ridiculous and frankly I don’t see the point it laying it out for you piece by piece. He ruined the Knicks product on the court, he ruined their salary cap and he created a ton of animosity amongst the fan base who grew tired of Isiah’s act. Finally the man stupid enough to pay the lazy Eddy Curry a huge contract amongst many other awful personnel decisions during his tenure in NY. Finally Isiah walked away from the Garden (only to constantly be rumored to return or advising the team or helping them recruit a free agent, anything to annoy us, must be Isiah’s motto).
Then it was off to Florida International University! Who? I’ll never forget the day, how hard I laughed watching Thomas sit and claim that he wanted to be at FIU. How it was him who would bring in top level recruits and make FIU a basketball school. It would have been much more admirable to come out and say this is the best opportunity for me right now. I need to prove myself as a coach again before I’ll be given another big opportunity. But he didn’t, he tried to sell us a fairytale, but it didn’t work. He said he was told he would get five years to turn around the program. Because that would have worked out, what with your impressive 13 games under .500 record after 91 games. Isiah Thomas was fired because he couldn’t get the job done. Big time recruits didn’t want to play for you and neither will any NBA player in his right mind. A head coach would have to be either completely desperate or stupid to want to play for Thomas the GM. Thomas was boxed into either taking the FIU job three years ago, sitting at home or maybe becoming an announcer. Now that he has failed, again, I just hope nobody makes the mistake of hiring him, ever, ever again.
Follow @Keeping_It_Heel
Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section (for help click HERE)