Isiah Thomas was an amazing player back in the 80's and 90's for the Detroit Pistons, but something must have went terribly wrong in his head sometime around December 22nd, 2003. That is the day James Dolan decided to doom his franchise by giving Thomas the position of President of Basketball Operations (general manager). Thomas slaughtered the Knicks' payroll and seemed to attempt to build a collection of the most overpaid/under motivated/controversial players in the NBA.
While general manager, Isiah brought Stephon Marbury, Eddy Curry, Steve Francis, and a pre-sane Zach Randolph to New York in seperate, massive deals. He overpaid the often injured and rarely effective pair of Jerome James and Jared Jeffries to full mid-level exceptions. Take a look at just how bad some of these deals went for New York:
-- Eddy Curry: Since arriving New York, Curry has spent a large portion of time being injured or out of playing shape. Not only has the trade not worked out even a little, but Thomas gave away the picks the landed Chicago LaMarcus Aldridge and Joakim Noah. Think the Knicks would rather have those two solid talents or Curry's bloated contract and body?
-- Jerome James: The Knicks paid James just over $16 million for a stunning total of 89 games over four seasons. That's one full regular season and a seven game playoff series. Last I checked, that's the kind of money LeBron and Kobe make for that many games, not a player like Jerome James.-- Steve Francis: Although he averaged 14 points per game with the Knicks, Francis was barely able to stay on the court due to injuries that led to him appearing in just 68 games over two seasons. By the way, the Knicks paid $15 million for those games.
-- Stephon Marbury: Marbury produced on the floor, but he was definitely becoming the current head case he is these days. Before eventually being sent away from the team and later traded, Marbury only took the Knicks to the playoffs once, only to be swept. This investment cost the Knicks $91 million.
Also, while serving as GM and head coach, he brought himself and the Knicks under scrutiny because of his sexual harrassment lawsuit filed by Anucha Browne Sanders in October 2006. The case would eventually be settled out of court, but the media constantly covered the story while also mentioning Isiah's failures with the Knicks on the sidelines. He was also alledged to have instigated a brawl between the Denver Nuggets and the Knicks by telling his players to foul hard. After his departure from the team in 2008, Thomas was hospitalized for what has been reported as an "accidental overdose" of the sleeping drug Lunesta.
During his time with the team, Thomas may have butchered New York's reputation worse than any other general manager before him. For any team. Between his horrible signings and deals, along with the negative media attention constantly swarming around the team while he was there, Isiah Thomas proved without a doubt he had no business being a general manager. Today's GMs need to take note of what Thomas did with the Knicks, not for his successes with the team, but because his massive failures should never be repeated by another team.
