1. Isiah Lord Thomas III, known as "Zeke", is an American former professional basketball player who is head coach of the Saginaw Soul of the Basketball Super League, and an analyst for NBA TV and Fox Sports.
67 Facts About Isiah Thomas
1. 2.
Isiah Thomas played his entire professional career for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association.
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Isiah Thomas was named to the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams, and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.
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Isiah Thomas played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers, leading them to the 1981 NCAA championship as a sophomore and declaring for the NBA draft.
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Isiah Thomas later served as men's basketball coach for the Florida International University Golden Panthers for three seasons from 2009 to 2012.
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Isiah Thomas was a president and part owner of the Knicks' WNBA sister team, the New York Liberty, from 2015 to 2019.
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The youngest of 9 children, Isiah Thomas was born on April 30,1961, in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in the city's West Side.
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Isiah Thomas started playing basketball at age three and would dribble and shoot baskets as the halftime entertainment at Catholic Youth Organization games.
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Thomas's father, Isiah Thomas II, was an army veteran wounded in the Battle of Saipan.
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Isiah Thomas later attended trade school, eventually becoming the first black supervisor at International Harvester in Chicago.
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Isiah Thomas II left the family when Isiah was a young child.
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Isiah Thomas III attended Our Lady of Sorrows School and St Joseph High School in Westchester, which was a 20-minute commute from his home.
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Isiah Thomas was recruited to play college basketball for Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers.
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Nevertheless, Isiah Thomas's mother chose Knight and Indiana because she felt that getting away to Bloomington would be good for her son, as would Knight's discipline.
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At the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, Knight got so mad at Isiah Thomas he threatened to put him on a plane home.
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Isiah Thomas quickly proved his skills as a player and became a favorite with both Knight and Indiana fans.
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Isiah Thomas responded so well that, as the season unfolded, Knight and Isiah Thomas grew as friends.
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Isiah Thomas started for the Eastern Conference in the 1982 NBA All-Star Game and made the All-Rookie Team.
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Only Kevin McHale, while talking to Isiah Thomas can be found shaking hands.
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One of Isiah Thomas's most inspiring and self-defining moments came in Game 6.
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Isiah Thomas was voted NBA Finals Most Valuable Player of the 1990 NBA Finals after averaging 27.6 points, 7.0 assists, and 5.2 rebounds per game.
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Isiah Thomas has ridiculed the idea that he masterminded the supposed freeze-out as "ludicrous", pointing out that he was a relatively young player on a team that included Larry Bird, Julius Erving and Moses Malone.
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In 1987, following a playoff loss to the Boston Celtics, Isiah Thomas was asked if he agreed with Dennis Rodman's comments that Larry Bird was overrated because he was white; Isiah Thomas agreed that if Bird was Black he "would be just another good guy" instead of being portrayed as the league's best player.
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Isiah Thomas later said he was joking and just supporting his teammate.
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In 1992, Isiah Thomas was passed over for the Dream Team apparently because of his strained relationship with Jordan.
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Isiah Thomas was selected to the 1980 Olympic US basketball team, but like all American athletes, he was not able to play in Moscow due to the Olympics boycott.
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Isiah Thomas led the US in assists with 37 and averaged 9.7 points per game.
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In 2007, Isiah Thomas received one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.
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In 1998, Isiah Thomas founded a company serving consumers, retailers, and corporations with online gift certificates and other i-commerce products.
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Isiah Thomas was one of the founding members of the advisory board for Marquis Jet Partners and a partner of Dale and Isiah Thomas Popcorn.
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Isiah Thomas has served as CEO and executive chairman of the board of directors of One World Products, a cannabis company based in the US with cultivation and processing facilities in Colombia.
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Isiah Thomas worked a three-man booth with Costas and Doug Collins.
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Isiah Thomas purchased the Continental Basketball Association for $10 million in 1999.
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Isiah Thomas believed that streaming video would be the future of news and entertainment.
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When Isiah Thomas became head coach of the Indiana Pacers in 2000, he was required by NBA rules to sell the CBA.
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Isiah Thomas was hired as head coach of the Indiana Pacers on July 20,2000.
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Isiah Thomas succeeded Larry Bird, who previously coached the Pacers to the Eastern Conference title.
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Isiah Thomas attempted to bring up young talents such as Jermaine O'Neal, Jamaal Tinsley, Al Harrington, and Jeff Foster.
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Isiah Thomas was ultimately unsuccessful with the Knicks' roster and fanbase.
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Isiah Thomas traded away several future draft picks to Chicago in a deal for Eddy Curry including what turned out to be two lottery picks in talent-rich drafts, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Joakim Noah.
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Isiah Thomas was not fined or suspended; NBA Commissioner David Stern said that he relied only on "definitive information" when handing out punishments.
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Isiah Thomas compounded the Knicks' salary-cap problems by signing fringe players such as Jerome James and Jared Jeffries to full mid-level exception contracts.
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Isiah Thomas predicted he would lead the Knicks to a championship, stating that his goal was to leave behind a "championship legacy" with the Knicks just as he had done for the Detroit Pistons.
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One night after the Knicks tied a franchise record of 59 losses and ended their season, news broke that Isiah Thomas had been told he would not return as Knicks head coach the following season.
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Isiah Thomas was banned from having contact with Knicks players on the grounds that he could undermine his successor.
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On December 19,2012, NBA TV announced that Isiah Thomas would begin work on December 21,2012, as a member of the studio analyst panel.
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Isiah Thomas was relieved of his duties with the Liberty on February 21,2019, after James Dolan sold the Liberty to Joseph Tsai.
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In 2016, Thomas announced that he was the exclusive United States importer of the Cheurlin Champagne brand through ISIAH Imports, a subsidiary of ISIAH International, LLC Cheurlin Champagne made its debut in the United States at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
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Since 2017, Isiah Thomas has been a regular panelist during NBA on TNT's Monday coverage Players Only, which features only former NBA players as studio analysts, play-by-play announcers, and color analysts for games.
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Isiah Thomas was named head coach of the Saginaw Soul of the Basketball Super League, an expansion team which will begin play in 2025.
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Isiah Thomas had a guest appearance on the 1990s television comedy Home Improvement, playing himself in Season 3 episode 2.
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Isiah Thomas further appeared as himself in a basketball themed episode of the police procedural Due South in 1997.
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Isiah Thomas received his Master's in Education from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education in 2013.
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At UC Berkeley, Isiah Thomas studied the connection between education and sports, specifically how American society makes education accessible to black male college athletes.
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In 1987, when he was a Piston, Isiah Thomas organized the "No Crime Day" in Detroit.
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Isiah Thomas had the help of Detroit Mayor Coleman Young to call for a moratorium on crime in the summer of 1986.
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Isiah Thomas founded Mary's Court, a foundation that supports economically disadvantaged parents and children on the West Side of Chicago.
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In July 2012, Isiah Thomas joined The Black Men's Roundtable in Florida along with other national and local black leaders to discuss issues that directly affect black males.
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In September 2012, Isiah Thomas co-hosted the Ballin' for Peace Tournament at St Sabina Church in Chicago to reduce gang violence through communication and basketball.
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Isiah Thomas met his future wife, Lynn Kendall, the daughter of a Secret Service agent and a nurse, in the early 1980s while they were both attending Indiana University.
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Isiah Thomas served as chief executive officer of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
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Isiah Thomas was selected as the Most Outstanding Player of the 1981 Final Four and the Most Valuable Player of the 1990 NBA Finals.
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Isiah Thomas was a consensus first-team All-American in 1980 and a 12-time NBA All-Star.
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When Isiah Thomas retired as a player in 1994, he ranked third in NBA history with 9,061 assists and fifth in league history with 1,861 steals.
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In 1996, Isiah Thomas was named to the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, selected upon the 50th anniversary of the founding of the NBA.
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Isiah Thomas has been inducted into the following halls of fame:.
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Isiah Thomas was inducted into the American Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.