thestar:Nothing ever ends really well for Isiah Thomas.
He was supposed to be a Detroit Piston for life, but he left the organization less than a year after his playing career ended amid acrimony with the team's front office.
He was supposed to be the architect of the Raptors, but his third season wasn't a month old when he departed after his bid to buy the team failed.
He bought the minor league Continental Basketball Association, but a year and a half later it declared bankruptcy.
He coached for three years in Indiana, but when his old nemesis Larry Bird joined the organization, Thomas was gone within months.
Despite the string of letdowns, Thomas continues to stick his neck out and take high-profile jobs. He remains sublimely confident in his ability to succeed at any task.
And now, as the NBA team he is trying to reconstruct pays its first visit of the season to the Air Canada Centre tomorrow afternoon, the one-time voice and face of the Raptors is facing his most difficult hurdle.
In the biggest media city in the world, Thomas is trying to resurrect the New York Knicks. It has not been easy, nor has it been a success so far. In many ways, it mirrors much of what he's done since hanging up his sneakers in 1994.
As president of the Knicks he has put together a team with a staggering payroll of almost $125 million (all figures U.S.), more than double the payroll of half the NBA's 30 franchises. For the money, the Knicks are barely better than the Raptors, each a long shot to even be in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
But despite all the failures and the departures under cloudy circumstances, there remain those who admire Thomas.
"He's taken a lot of paths that I want to follow," said Toronto's Jalen Rose, who grew up in Detroit watching Thomas work his magic with the Pistons and who ultimately played for his idol with the Pacers.
"He was a hall of fame player, he was a great broadcaster, he's been an owner, he's been a general manager. As a player and someone who has big aspirations after ball, he's definitely someone I look up to."
There are those who wonder just how Thomas keeps moving up the basketball food chain despite the carnage he often leaves behind. But his self-confidence allows him to convince others he's up for almost any challenge.
The 45-year-old is routinely skewered in the New York media yet he attends as many home games as he can, standing in a corridor just behind the scorer's table at Madison Square Garden, listening to the boos.
"At the end of the day, we're all going to be judged by wins and losses and since they're not a first-place team, he's going to take a lot of criticism but I think he's made some good moves," said Rose.
And he's made lots of them. Not a single player remains on the Knicks from the day in 2003 that he took the job.
"The (acquisition) of (Eddy) Curry for (Mike) Sweetney and Tim Thomas worked out well," Rose said of the recent trade with the Chicago Bulls. "The move for Jamal Crawford is working out well, and he's building a good team. And he did a good job of recruiting (coach) Larry Brown."
But to many, it's not whether Thomas ultimately succeeds or not, it's that he keeps doing things. When he was the vice-president and part-owner of the Raptors, it was seen as a huge stride for African-American players who wanted to move into a front office some today. When he worked as a broadcaster at NBC it was another step, his coaching career (three years, three playoff teams) can be seen as an accomplishment; if he ever gets the Knicks turned around he will be lauded as a genius.
And players like Rose, who want to be like Thomas after they retire, have someone they can look up to.
"What he's doing is what most players aspire to do, trust me," said Rose. "I see (Boston's) Doc Rivers take that path also, being a coach, being a broadcaster ... That's what a lot of people aspire to do and my hat's off to him.
"Hopefully I can emulate that."
Isiah has sure come from a long way to be where he is right now. In a sense he isn't that much different than Mabury. Both of them had to deal with a lot of criticism and had to move around before finding a home in NY. Now is the time for both of them to show everyone that they can succeed in this league.
