SURROUNDED by a series of high-profile NBA suspensions and ensnared by discord and dysfunction palpitating throughout the league (and that’s only the polluted atmosphere at the top of the standings), an ESPN website creator, Jeffrey Denberg, felt the time was right to smear Isiah Thomas with one erroneous assertion and misguided opinion after another.
Not to say the Hawks’ veteran beat writer had the exclusive this week on denigrating Thomas.
Obviously determined to brand a marquee face as the villain for the CBA going out of business (it’s been teetering on disintegration for years, but this makes for a better-selling story), Sports Ill-Stated went six pages deep in its disparagement.
And, as usual, the Mickey Mouse Magazine distorted, aborted and butchered the truth every step of the faulty way.
Today’s Query, Class: Who Are These Masked Men, Anyway And Why Are They So Eager To Despise And Doubt Thomas?
I, the author of this space, do solemnly swear, it’s not now, nor has it ever been in my genetic makeup to play the role of defense attorney. It’s much more fun to have vim, vinegar and vitriol coursing through my veins as I dispense justice by decapitating the haughty and the humps. . . as judged by me, of course.
That said, and with the Pacers conveniently vis- iting New Jersey this afternoon, I begin today’s proceedings, otherwise known as “The Ignorant v. Isiah” with the following opening statement.
There are certainly a lot of insufferable morons in Mudville.
The other day I found myself wandering the web when I came across this Pulitzer Prize-winning prose from the cable network, owned by Disney. It was entitled, “Pacers Are Average But is Isiah Responsible?”
The scrub, er, scribe, Denberg of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution is so far removed from reality, Charles Oakley demands he take a bottle into the bathroom.
Let’s distinguish fact from fiction, shall we?
Denberg: “There are more than a few, close to the Pacers, who say Thomas is more than a little disingenuous. That he is in large measure responsible for the uneven performance by Indiana this season.”
Really?
Then how come only Charlatan Barkley didn’t understand this was going to be a watershed season for the Pacers? Even Dan Quayle could read, if not spell, the writing on the Eastern Conference wall when Rik Smits retired, Mark Jackson defected and Dale Davis was traded for inexperienced Jermaine O’Neal. A reality so evident it didn’t even escape Denberg.
At the same time, Denberg “The Dunce” and a lot of others still don’t comprehend that O’Neal, Al Harrington, Jonathan Bender are not Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady. Those guys were almost instant successes (McGrady took a season), whereas the Pacers’ gifted high school crew needs to be nurtured and developed into becoming competitive every possession, versus every other game.
Anyone – Isiah Thomas, Marlo Thomas, Thomas Edison – would have had an impossible role reprising last year’s virgin voyage into the Finals. Reaching the playoffs is difficult enough.
Yet Denberg emptily “points to 16 different starting lineups, the outright disappearance from the rotation of players who figure prominently for eight to ten games and bizarre substitutions, in which productive players disappear on the bench.”
Really?
Are we actually supposed to believe Thomas is stupid enough to sit players who are helping the team? It’s insulting to his integrity and intelligence to even dignify such a ridiculous accusation with a response.
Should Denberg be at all interested in accuracy, ten of those starting lineup changes were due to injury, illness, suspension (Reggie Miller) and disciplinary (when O’Neal missed the team charger to LA) action.
At 35-40 and 1½ games ahead of the Celtics for the East’s eighth playoff spot (with seven to go), you’d be shirking reality not to know there are times the Pacers have underachieved during the season. But blaming the coach is a convoluted and completely uneducated.
Still, the above absurdity is pure pabulum compared to the absurd observations Denberg dredged up out of thin air, or extracted from the insanely jealous. How else can you explain this completely oblivious remark?
“What strikes those who know what’s going on is that Isiah doesn’t appear to work very hard,” Denberg claims one insider told him. “He’s constantly canceling [game day] shootarounds. He cancels practices. He’s frequently late . . .
This is so outrageously false, Thomas felt compelled to reply.
“This is the first time in my life, anybody has ever questioned my work ethic. Anywhere! At any level! It’s never been written or whispered that I don’t work hard. If anything, people have said the opposite; I’ve been charged with going overboard.”
The allegations about constantly blowing off shoot-arounds and practices and frequently not showing up on time are equally irresponsible. As is the nonsense about there being a $5 million buyout in his 4-year, $20M contact; should Isiah get prematurely whacked, he gets what’s left.
But don’t take Thomas’ word for it. “My veterans have been coached by Dean Smith, Jack Ramsay, Larry Brown and George Karl,” Thomas underlined. “They’d be screaming bloody murder if I didn’t work hard. You can’t fool them.”
Or Jalen Rose’s word, either. Or the other Pacers who vocally came to Thomas’ rescue when Denberg decided to defame him.
If Denberg’s claims are true, how come the Pacers’ beat writer (Mark Montieth has been covering for five seasons) never wrote about them and has yet to verify one iota?
More importantly, why would Donnie Walsh, one of the shrewdest front-office people in the league and someone renowned in media circles for never dealing in deception, let Thomas get away with such dereliction of duty? Why would such a powerful man dodge such issues (if they were real) and continue to entrust his team to someone overcome with apathy?
Especially if Walsh and Thomas are not getting along, yet another counterfeit claim by Denberg “The Dunce”.
The Pacer president was so incensed by all of the above, he immediately called Denberg, a guy he’s known for 30 years (knows his father longer) and blasted him for not checking out the authenticity of what he’d supposedly been told. Then Walsh called a press conference in Indy and refuted the charges publicly.
“If people want to make comments about Isiah’s coaching, I can’t do anything about it,” Walsh says. “But the other stuff is bleepin’ wrong.
“As far as our relationship being strained is concerned, that’s totally untrue. Nothing could be further from the truth. He has never tried any B.S with me. I don’t know him as well as I knew Bird, all I know is, I like him as my coach and I didn’t give him the same team I gave Bird. I like our future.”
Before hiring Thomas, Walsh expressed his concern to me about employing former players who have no coaching credentials. “I worry that they don’t know how much work it is. This job consumes you. It takes your life.”
After Thomas had been on the job for several months, I reopened that conversation. Walsh was asked if Isiah had a 2-hour work mentality (as many ex-players do in their next profession), or had he become appropriately obsessed?
“He’s always here when I’m here,” Walsh stressed. “And I’m always here!”
No, the Pacers won’t make the NBA Finals. And, no, Isiah Thomas won’t get my vote as coach of the year. But to suggest he’s mailing it in is an affront to hundreds of thousands of disgruntled postal workers.
Next, Sports Ill-Stated’s misrepresentation of Thomas.
Contrary to its warped perception, he strapped the CBA to a rescue board and put in on life support. During his short reign as commissioner/owner, two of the nine teams turned a profit for the first time, the league signed its first TV contract (Sports Ill-Stated mocked it’s 20 game-schedule with BET at 20G a pop, as if the product was in big demand) and recruited national sponsors.
Other than Mark Jackson’s return to the Pacers, nothing would have made him happier than to be the first commissioner/coach. But there was no getting around David Stern’s rule.
Under the NBA’s constitution, no one with a “management interest” (including a coach) is permitted to hold a financial interest in another basketball league.
Really? So how come the league’s 29 owners are allowed to be partners (as part of the NBA) in its new Developmental League? And a number of them are allowed to be partners (as part of the NBA) in the WNBA?
Obviously, there are loopholes in any constitution, if somebody at the top wants to make an exception. What’s truly unconscionable about the Developmental League is that the NBA is in bed with SFX. Meaning, David Falk, the same agent who tried to knock Stern’s league out of business during the lockout, so he and his partners could start another one, is now in business with the commissioner.
At any rate, Thomas gambled he’d be able to keep the CBA and coach. And lost. Big. Contrary to Sports Ill-Stated , the NBA never offered him $11M ($2M more than his original obligation), while his pride and poor business sense prohibited him from accepting a lower proposal that would’ve saved him much face and finance.
Once Thomas was forced to place the CBA in a blind trust and barred from being privy to its day-to-day operations, the inevitable happened. Nobody wanted to buy it because nobody envisioned a future competing against the NBA.
Funny, when Barnes & Noble gobbled up the corner bookstores, Lenny Riggio got trashed. In the case of CBA, the corner book store got pushed aside when the mega-store came into being, yet Thomas got trashed.
Contrary to Sports Ill-Stated , coaching was not a way out financially for Thomas. Already, it’s cost him $9M. It could cost him as much as $14M. That’s a ton more than all the CBA owners put together.
Thomas’ only sin was wanting back in the action. Back in the gym. Back in the game. Back in a league he helped excite and ignite. Why shouldn’t he get paid handsomely for it like Bird, Erving, Magic and Jordan?
