Why might you ask? Normally for a multitude of reasons, but right now, mainly because:
Hee hee. I have always disliked Isiah Thomas, to the extent that he is probably my least favorite basketball player ever. Why, he strikes me as whiny, petulant, over-rated, and selfish. I despised the way his Pistons teams took fast breaking basketball and turned it into a slogging foul fest. I watched in disbelief as he took over the CBA and in 2 years managed to take a league that survived for decades as a de facto NBA minor league and ran it into the ground.
I watched with giddy glee as he took over the head coaching job of the Indiana Pacers and took a 56 win team and led them to 41 victories. Clearly his magic touch developed in the CBA still existed. The next year was 42 wins and first round playoff failure. He took lots of criticism and I was happy. This year? The Pacers started off great and there was much Isiah love in the media. But, his team which was likely the most talented in the Eastern Conference stumbled down the finish and lost in the first round to the Celtics, a team with 1.5 good players.
So, Isiah still sucked. But, to put the cherry on top, his new boss is Larry Bird, one of the best players of all-time and about whom Isiah once said:
Well, he’s your boss now and you have so far pretty much failed as a coach. Enjoy.
It was Dennis Rodman that said that, not Thomas, and the quote’s not even accurately cited. What Rodman said was, “If Larry Bird was black he’d be just another good basketball player.”
As a Pacers fan, I think it’s great. Larry Legend teamed with Isaiah. Hot damn!!! I still remember 1981 when Isaiah led the Hoosiers to the NCAA championship. Reagan got shot that day, but my only concern was: “Are they going to play the game?”
BTW, Mullinator, I think you’re showing your ignorance. One reason why the Pacers went from 56 wins to 41 was the unexpected retirement of Rik Smits. It’s kind of hard to dominate when you lose your big man just before the start of the season.
I think Walsh and Isaiah’s acumen is amply shown by the deal that bought Jermaine O’Neal to Indiana. Many Pacers fans, myself included, thought they were crazy to trade away Dale Davis to get O’Neal, but the wisdom of that trade is now obvious to everyone.
As for the stumble this season, you and the idiots in the media kind of forget the Pacers are still one of the youngest teams in the NBA, Jamaal Tinsley had to deal with the death of a close relative, and Stern and the other mafiosos in the NBA front office disrupted the team’s chemistry with a series of contrived suspensions.
GO PACERS!!!
Regardless, Thomas is still a moron. Coyote, your explanation still doesn’t account for this year’s meltdown. I love the Pacers, but I hates me some Isiah.
Thomas is a TERRIBLE coach! He has the deepest team in the Eastern Conference. He’s got the best low-post player in the Eastern Conference and one of the best defenders and one of the only useful centers in the conference. Plus a bunch of good, young players like Harrington. And he can’t get out of the first round. He’s an imbecile who has never succeeded at anything except playing basketball.
And the O’Neal trade shows Walsh’s acumen. It’s too bad he has a buffoon running that great team he’s put together.
Bird has a few days to let the impression sink in that he’s there to run the show for the long term, not that he was brought in to do the dirty work for Walsh.
But sometime next week, look for Larry to announce that he’s completed his review of the organization and set up his plans for the future, and that they involve taking Isiah out behind the arena to put a bullet in his head. About damn time, too - he’s messed up everything he’s done.
Good luck, Larry - we need you back in Boston, but Red doesn’t have enough pull with the new administration anymore and they don’t know you themselves.