This cover story, by Jay Mariotti, first appeared in Feb. 20, 1982, issue of The Sporting News, under the headline "ISIAH: Pistons' Sparkplug Has Had a Bumpy Rookie Year," just past the midpoint of the Detroit icon's first NBA season. At only 20, Thomas did, in fact, have a lot to learn — and learn he did. Two seasons later, the Pistons were in the playoffs. Six years later they were in the NBA Finals and in 1989, with Thomas at the helm, Detroit so-called "Bad Boys" won the first of back-to-back NBA titles.
DETROIT — The date was July 31, 1981. Isiah Thomas, a 20-year-old guard from Indiana University, had just signed a four-year, $1.6 million contract to play basketball for the Detroit Pistons. It should have been a moment of great joy and accomplishment for a perky young man who had risen from the Chicago ghetto.
But there he was, standing behind a podium in his gray pinstripes, telling reporters in a serious and philosophical tone that he felt like one big piece of raw meat.
"I really believe this is all crazy,” Thomas said. "I can't see how a price can be placed on your life. When you go in and negotiate and ask for $500,000 a year, you're selling yourself. And there's no way you can tell me I'm worth only $500,000 a year when I sell myself. There's just no way. I think I'm worth much more. I don't care if they pay me $2 million a year. I'm worth much more than that.
"It's a good feeling about being signed," he conceded, "but there's a bad feeling about it, too, when you think of this money business — when you wake up at night and think you're worth only so much money to play basketball. I don't want to be known as Isiah Thomas, the basketball player. I want to be known as Isiah Thomas, the person."
In an economically depressed city like Detroit, his remarks seemed presumptuous and out of line. It seemed appalling to the unemployed that a 20-year-old kid with two years of college (Thomas applied for the National Basketball Association draft after leading Indiana to the NCAA championship in his sophomore season) who just happens to play a pretty good game of basketball could snicker at an annual salary of $400,000. There were a flood of calls to Detroit-area sports talk shows and letters to newspapers.
The public could not understand why Isiah Thomas was speaking out in such a controversial manner.
It would soon find out this was commonplace.
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The rookie season of Isiah Lord Thomas Ill has not been as triumphant as what appears on the surface. Sure, the fans voted him to a starting berth in the NBA All-Star Game. Sure, he has helped lift the Pistons, one of the saddest and most inept franchises in professional sports, from a seemingly inescapable rut. Sure, he has been called a future Hall of Famer by no less an authority than Bill Russell.
But Thomas also has encountered many obstacles in the frenzied and often frazzled world of professional basketball. He has expressed confusion about his role in Coach Scotty Robertson's offense. He has had trouble adjusting to the plane-to-hotel-to-arena-to-plane rigors of NBA travel. He missed five games with a sprained ankle. He has chewed out a member of the Pistons' statistics crew for not crediting him with more assists. He subtly criticized the Pistons for trading his buddy, forward Gregory Kelser, to Seattle. He has asked reporters not to be "so negative" about the team.
"Isiah is a very emotional and sensitive guy who will not hesitate to say what's on his mind," said Dr. Charles Tucker, a practicing psychologist and former semipro basketball player who advises Thomas and several other NBA players. "He can be temperamental, too, and that's why I tell him to talk things out with me before going public with them. Sometimes you can get into trouble by saying things in public. A lot of times it's best to get them out of your system by talking to a friend.
"Rookies are going to have their ups and downs. It's the nature of the league. I tell Isiah this, and sometimes he doesn't understand why he can't beat it all. He just can't let it get him down."
Thomas, as insightful and poised as anyone his age, said, "Sometimes I do let things get me down that I should be able to shake off. I hope maturity will take care of that."
Still, with all of the hardships he has endured, Thomas continues to smile. The smile makes Isiah Thomas. It will earn him thousands of dollars in endorsements before his career is finished. It will earn him more All-Star berths, more applause, more adulation.
The word is charisma. And it is very important — not only to the Pistons, but to the image of the NBA.
"Every time I see him," said an admiring Larry O'Brien, the NBA commissioner, "I feel proud to be sitting where I am. I look forward to watching him play in this league for many seasons to come."
The seasons will get easier for Isiah Thomas. This one, unfortunately for him, has resembled a yo-yo. Up. Down. Up. Down. So much tumult. Like a soap opera, of sorts.
Act I
Thomas' pro debut took place in a cozy gymnasium in Spring Arbor, Mich. There, the Indiana Pacers rolled to a 129-99 exhibition victory over the sloppy Pistons. Thomas was 4-for-13 from the field and committed eight turnovers. The next day, a headline in a Detroit newspaper read: "Same Old Pistons."
The club went on to lose three of its remaining five exhibitions. Although he scored 26 points in a victory over Cleveland and in a loss to Los Angeles, Thomas was committing turnovers at an alarming rate. Defensively, he was not impressing Robertson, a stickler for tenacity.
A day after the New Castle Disaster, an appropriate term for a 20-point Pistons loss to the Pacers in a high school gym in eastern Indiana, Robertson arranged a meeting with Thomas.
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"Now that our exhibition season is over, I want to analyze how you've done," said the coach.
"Well," replied Thomas, "I think I have to get a little better on defense.”
Robertson: "That's not how I would say it."
Thomas: "How would you say it?"
Robertson: "You have to become much better and much more consistent on defense. I saw you play (Ronnie) Lester and (Ricky) Sobers against Chicago and thought you looked excellent. Then I watched you play Indiana the next night and thought you looked terrible."
The coach repeated his doubts about Thomas a day before the Pistons' regular-season opener against Milwaukee.
"He's just a rookie, and he's still got to learn in what is the toughest basketball league in the world. For him to be the player he can be, it might take him 20 games, a half a year or maybe even a whole year. I can relate his progress to the length of time it takes a quarterback to develop in pro football. He is like a quarterback because he must read the other team and, on the offensive end, he has the ball in his hands all of the time.
"Offensively. I want Isiah to be mentally and physically stronger, simply because all of the defensive attention will be focused on him. He's got a good NBA body, but he has to work on his strength. He's got to be strong to last through an 82-game season."
To which Thomas responded: "I think I'll be all right."
Act II
He was all right. With 9,182 fans screaming and stamping their feet in the Silverdome, Thomas poured in 31 points dished out 11 assists, hit a 50-foot desperation shot at the halftime buzzer and directed the Pistons to a thrilling 118-113 victory over the injury-depleted Bucks. "He's so poised, so cool, so-so-so damn good," raved Milwaukee Coach Don Nelson.
The next night, in front of a jammed house of 18,633 fans at Chicago Stadium, Isiah scored 28 points as the Pistons took a 119-106 victory. Suddenly, the lowly Pistons were 2-1-and Isiah Thomas was the talk of the league.
"Isiah is going to be just like (Larry) Bird and Magic (Johnson)," said Chicago Coach Jerry Sloan. "He's just so good for basketball. Put a player like that on any team and he automatically makes the other guys play better."
"Whew, is Isiah good!" said Chicago guard Reggie Theus. "That's one very good team with him out there."
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Two days later, Thomas stepped from his light brown Mercedes and began walking toward the gym for practice.
"If we get off to a 4-0 start, do you think the people around here would get excited?" he asked a reporter.
"Yep. This is a decent basketball town," the guy replied.
Isiah: "Well, then I'II bet you lunch we do just that."
Reporter: "You sure?”
Isiah: “Yep."
Reporter: "You're on."
Thomas lost the bet when the Pistons dropped their fourth game to Washington. A night later, they were handed an unmerciful slashing by the Boston Celtics. But two weeks later, after an overtime victory in Kansas City, the Pistons flew home on Thanksgiving Day with an 8-5 record. They were in first place in the Central Division.
"First place," mused Thomas. "It feels real nice. Now, we have to stay there."
Act III
The Pistons remained in first place for two days. Atlanta beat them at home in overtime. Then they went on the road and lost consecutive games to Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Indiana. Injuries were piling up, Robertson was taking his frustration out on reporters — and Isiah Thomas was worried.
"We've got to do something. It seems like we're losing our confidence," he said.
On December 5, Thomas suffered a sprained right ankle when Milwaukee's Kevin Stacom slammed into him while driving to the hoop. He missed the next five games, of which the Pistons dropped four. Once 8-5, the club suddenly was 9-15 and closer to last place than first.
With Thomas back, the Pistons put together four straight victories on Christmas week. But after consecutive losses at Washington and New Jersey, the rookie erupted.
"Sometimes I'm a little confused out there," said Thomas, who averaged just 12.5 points and 5.2 assists per game after returning from the injury. "Scotty has told me my priorities are, first, to give assists, then to play defense, and, last, to score. So the first thing I think of is to pass the ball, even when it might not be the thing to do. My alternative is to shoot, and that's why I miss some shots I should make.
"I'm just confused. Basketball has got to be simple. There's only so many things you can concentrate on. When you think about other things, how to do this and how to do that, you can't get the basketball done."
In a television interview after a loss to New York two nights later, Thomas repeated that he was confused, prompting Robertson to call a closed-door conference with his player. Following the meeting, Thomas said he hoped the matter was resolved, although it was not to his liking.
A week later, Earvin (Magic) Johnson of the Lakers — one of Thomas' closest friends in the league — rapped Robertson for misusing Thomas. "Maybe the coach doesn't understand," Magic said, "but Isiah says he can never get into the flow of the game. It's hard to keep coming in and going out being substituted for. That's why he's been down mentally, because he thinks the way he's being used is affecting his play."
After an impressive home victory over Philadelphia, in which Thomas had a season high of 13 assists, the Pistons won just four of their next 12 games before the All-Star break. And while Isiah Thomas was no longer grumbling, it was evident the team was slumping.
Act IV
It was a time to get away from it all. New York. The All-Star Game. At the Brendan Byrne Arena in the New Jersey Meadowlands. Isiah Thomas was a starting guard for the Eastern Conference team.
"Just think," he pondered before the game. "I'm going to be playing in the same starting lineup as Larry Bird, Julius Erving and Artis Gilmore.
"Heck, I wish I could keep a front line like that through the rest of the season. We wouldn't have anything to worry about, then."
Some critics insisted that Thomas didn't deserve a berth in the All-Star Game, let alone a starting position. One was former Pistons coach and ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale, who said Milwaukee's Sidney Moncrief was a more qualified selection.
"Isiah has shown the flair for being spectacular, but he has also been inconsistent," Vitale said. "His problem stems from a lack of knowledge in understanding the role of a playmaker. Isiah, at times, thinks shot ahead of pass, and that is really not his role as the quarterback of the club.
"In fact, if you really want to know, if it weren't for his personality and all of the publicity he has received, Isiah wouldn't be considered the Pistons' No. I performer. As far as I'm concerned, he ranks No. 3 behind John Long and Kelly Tripucka."
Thomas quieted some of the critics with his performance in the game. Before leaving early in the third quarter with a sprained ankle, Isiah had 12 points, four assists and three steals.
"The corporation," East Coach Bill Fitch of the Celtics said to Thomas as he left the locker room. "The corporation."
Two nights later, Thomas scored a career-high 34 points including a game-winning four-point play with two seconds left against Atlanta. With the Pistons down, 105-102, he hit a 27-footer, good for three points, and was fouled by Rory Sparrow as he shot. Isiah sank the free throw to provide a bizarre ending.
"Maybe this can spur us on to a great second half," said Thomas, who suffered a sprained big toe of his left foot January 5 and sat out the Pistons next game.
Act V awaits us.