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Halfhearted, incompetent suicide attempt, much like his coaching/gmship. Which makes it even more pathetic.
Sounds like the family is desperately trying to close ranks and cover for Isaiah. Seems kind of useless, as he is virtually unemployable now anyway. If it was him, he desperately needs help, not a cover story.
Halfhearted, incompetent suicide attempt, much like his coaching/gmship. Which makes it even more pathetic.
Relax. None of us know the true story. Too many conflicting reports. Isiah has denied even taking sleeping pills. He could be lying. But, again, none of us know for sure what went down.
If it was a suicide attempt, then yes, it's pathetic what's become of him. The guy definitely needs some help.
Speaking as someone who tends to abuse painkillers and the like myself, ten sounds more like someone with a super-high tolerance getting loaded and miscounting.
As others have mentioned, Isaiah isn't exactly on many people's guest list these days. Still, if every asshole in the world committed suicide, I'd get pretty lonely.
EDIT: If there was a gun in that house, statistics indicate he would have been more likely to shoot himself. Men usually avoid pills in legitimate suicide attempts out of fear of not getting the job done.
October 26, 2008
Sports of The Times
The Flameout of a Fiery Compe or
By HARVEY ARATON
Isiah Thomas’s long and still-legendary career in professional basketball has been pockmarked by contradictions and conundrums. With the disturbing news out of Westchester County in New York on Friday of his overdose on sleeping pills, the pattern continued, even in what sure looks like an enforced retirement with the bonus of a paycheck.
There were his best friends in the business uniformly commenting in Saturday’s newspapers that absolutely, in no way, not even thinkable could they imagine Thomas trying to harm himself with prescription medication. And yet these are the people, mostly those who lived in his shadow when Thomas was the little big man of the Bad Boy Pistons, who have spent a fair amount of time trying to explain Thomas to the world, and figure him out for themselves.
Who is the man behind one of the most dazzling smiles in sports, capable of charming the venom from a snake? Brendan Suhr, a longtime aide to Chuck Daly and later to Thomas, once told me, “Isiah Thomas is the smartest guy I’ve ever met in basketball.” But how many times over the years has he slithered this way and that way until he outsmarted himself?
Somehow, the most credentialed 6-footer in the history of the sport found himself left off the one-and-only Dream Team for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Somehow, the player whose electric talent and colorful leadership helped build a two-time champion and typically sold-out arena in Auburn Hills, Mich., was divorced from that franchise roughly 20 minutes after he could no longer play.
Daly, Thomas’s coach during those halcyon days in the suburbs of Detroit, always said, “This guy could jump out of an airplane and land on his feet.” But even Daly would have to admit that more times than not, and especially in New York, Thomas did not jump. He was pushed hard.
No one, including his friends, can know what Thomas’s true frame of mind has been after so much rancor and ridicule as president and coach of the Knicks. Much of it he contributed to or brought on himself; some of it was over the top, because of the combustibility of James Dolan’s Madison Square Garden and the New York stage on which the basketball Big Apple circus plays.
The practical strategy for the newest Knicks savior, Donnie Walsh, was to gently move Thomas aside last spring, if only because he had three years remaining on his contract, then hope Daly was right, that Thomas could again land on his feet, find another job, and negotiate a buyout.
Not so likely, according to an N.B.A. official I spoke to not long ago. How, he asked, does anyone in the pro or college game sell him to the public after all that happened in New York?
Thomas’s Knicks disaster and, most significant, the civil suit for sexual harassment brought against him and won by the former Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders has rendered him radioactive. Maybe Walsh sends him on a scouting mission now and then. He probably has much time to ride his bike and hit the golf course, the leisurely life his friends have said he seemed so content with in the wake of this latest episode.
David Hall, the police chief in Harrison, N.Y., in an interview with The New York Times, called the case “an accidental overdose of a prescription sleeping pill” — but quickly added “we aren’t mind readers, so we don’t know why” Thomas took what Hall had earlier said were as many as 10 pills.
Thomas told The New York Post that it was his teenage daughter, Lauren, who had the medical issue. To which Hall responded, “We know the difference between a 47-year-old black male and a young black female.”
If Thomas really used his daughter as a public shield, what can we say about that except, Holy cow? If the chatty police chief’s version of events is accurate, it is understandable why he was annoyed with Thomas for, in effect, calling him a liar. But the point could have been made by saying he knew the difference between a 47-year-old male and a young female. What’s black got to do with it?
Once again, as always with Thomas, we are left with contradiction and conundrum. And the people who care about him — and that includes the fans who fondly remember what he was with a ball in his hands — must worry and wonder what comes next.
Years ago, I co-wrote a book that delved into reports of Thomas’s gambling habits during the Pistons’ championship years. In retrospect, it occurs to me that Thomas is becoming more and more comparable to Pete Rose, who was beloved for so long as the irascible Charlie Hustle, but eventually barred from baseball for continuing the hustle into his postplaying career.
To be a franchise player at Isiah Thomas’s size, he had to be cunning, calculating and occasionally downright nasty. Outside the lines, that was the formula for failure and now perhaps excommunication. For a man of 47, with Thomas’s fierce, compe ive nature, who knows what it’s like to live with that?
E-mail: [email protected]
Isiah Thomas stuns friends with latest news of overdose
BY FRANK ISOLA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
"Maybe his next job will to join the pro tour," Chuck Daly joked last week. "I heard that he recently broke 90."
As recently as Tuesday, Thomas was telling a close friend about his love of a game that his long-time rival, Michael Jordan, has been trying to master for the past 25 years. In that same conversation, Thomas talked about visiting his alma mater, Indiana University, to meet with new Hoosiers coach Tom Crean and address the team. He would also use the trip to spend time with his youngest son, Joshua, who is a student at IU.
From what his friends could surmise, Thomas was coming to grips with his tumultuous five seasons with the Knicks and was sounding optimistic about his future. What they never anticipated was Friday's shocking reports about Thomas being rushed to a Westchester hospital due to an apparent overdose of sleeping pills.
"I spoke to Isiah (last) Friday and he sounded fine," said Knicks assistant GM Glen Grunwald, who has known Thomas since 1979. "I really don't know what's going on. I just hope everything is okay with him and his family."
Friends, former co-workers and Knicks players all seemed surprised and confused about the day's developments. There have been conflicting reports about whether it was Thomas or a family member who was taken by ambulance to a Westchester hospital Friday morning.
Last night, the Knicks issued a carefully worded statement that read: "Isiah Thomas spoke with members of the New York Knicks organization and is OK. He is dealing with a family matter, and we will have no further comment. He has asked that we respect his privacy, and we will."
Thomas remains under contract with the Knicks and is scheduled to earn $21million over the next three seasons. Knicks president Donnie Walsh, who gave Thomas his first head coaching job with the Indiana Pacers, reassigned Thomas to a scouting/consultant position. Thomas was sent to Europe to scout Italian forward Danilo Gallinari, whom the Knicks selected with the sixth pick in June's NBA draft.
As of last night, Walsh said he hadn't spoken to Thomas since before the start of training camp. Nor could Walsh shed any new light on the story, saying, "I don't know anything about anything, other than what I'm hearing just around the building."
Asked if it was Thomas or another family member who was taken to the hospital, Walsh said: "I don't know. I've heard both versions so I really don't know."
Thomas doesn't have much contact with the players anymore. The News reported in April that he was asked to stay away from the team's training center in Greenburgh. Walsh, who has denied barring Thomas from the facility, admitted that he hasn't seen Thomas in Greenburgh.
Jamal Crawford says that he spoke to Thomas in September, while Quentin Richardson bumped into Thomas and his daughter sometime over the summer.
"Every time I talked to him, he was fine," Richardson said. "The last time I talked to him was right toward the middle to the end of the summer, when he was with his daughter. She was about to go to school and stuff like that. I found out (about Friday's incident) on the way down, coming down to the gym. I can't speak for anyone else, but I maintain a relationship with him. I'm just glad nobody is seriously hurt."
One of Thomas' long-time friends, Detroit Pistons VP Matt Dobek, said he was "absolutely stunned" when he heard the rumors about an accidental drug overdose.
"I heard the story and I said, 'That is not Isiah Lord Thomas III. Never would he do that. Never in a million years. Of course, I am concerned. I've texted him three times and he hasn't responded. If you know Isiah Thomas like I do, you know he would never do that.
"Years ago we went out, a bunch of us, and I saw him drink one beer and he started to act a little goofy. So we were all like, 'We're cutting you off, Zeke, after one. You can't handle it.' And he knew he couldn't. That's why I can't believe this.
"I saw him at the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies for our owner, Bill Davidson, about six weeks ago. I said, what's doing? Isiah said to me, 'Every day I ride my bike and I play golf. Life is good.' He seemed very happy."
LoL, wow.
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