Isiah Thomas can not be trusted.

This is not an attempt at disparaging the great playing career Isiah Thomas had with the Detroit Pistons.  Over the course of his Hall of Fame career, Thomas averaged 19.2 points and 9.3 assists per game, excellent numbers that exemplify the fact that Thomas was a prototypical NBA point guard.  Nobody can argue that Isiah Thomas was a great player.

On the other hand, there's Isiah's post-playing career.  It's been well-publicized that Thomas has been less-than-adept at assembling a winning roster for the New York Knicks.  Now, apparently Thomas has convinced Knicks owner James Dolan that Larry Brown, and not a roster consisting mainly of shoot-first point guards, is the reason behind the horrific record the team recorded last season.  Now, Thomas reportedly wants to take over as the head coach as well, feeling he is the best candidate to coach a team assembled in his vision.

Isiah Thomas as a head coach, doesn't that sound familiar?  Let's flash back to the years 2000-2003.  Thomas was the coach of the Indiana Pacers.  The Pacers were a talented team, with the veteran leadership of Reggie Miller and youthful energy of Jamaal Tinsley, Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal and Brad Miller.  In all three seasons Thomas was on the Indiana bench, the team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.  When a talented team struggles in the playoffs once, it's an aberration.  When it happens twice, it's alarming.  Three times?  At that point, it becomes a trend of failure.

Speaking of failure, have I mentioned the CBA?  Many people don't even recall that Isiah Thomas once ran the Continental Basketball Association.  In August 1999, Thomas purchased the entire CBA for $10 million, with the vision of eventually expanding the league into a full-fleged farm system.  Almost immediately, there were signs of trouble.  Veteran player salaries were reduced from $1,500 per week to $1,100 per week.  Thomas explained the change as a measure to get more young talent into the league, but many believed it was really motivated by financial struggles.  The NBA offered Thomas $11 million to purchase the league in March 2000, but the offer was rejected, as it was less than Thomas was willing to sell for.  When Isiah Thomas became coach of the Pacers in October 2000, he placed the CBA in a blind trust, with the intention of finding new owners for the league.  On February 8, 2001, 18 months after Isiah Thomas purchased the league, the Continental Basketball Association folded after almost 56 seasons of play.

That is a sampling of the non-playing failures of Isiah Thomas.  Thomas also had brief stints as a television commentator and as a part-owner of the Toronto Raptors, an expansion team that did not see much success while Thomas was in town.  When it comes to finding a person to do non-playing work in a basketball-related field, Isiah Thomas is not a man to trust.  I'm not certain I could trust Thomas to run a local youth league without much trouble.  Although his playing career was indeed excellent, the post-playing career of Isiah Thomas has left very much to be desired.