Talk:Isiah Thomas

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It was almost 20 years ago, but from what I remember, I think that the "If Larry Bird were black" quote was actually by Dennis Rodman, not Isiah. Isiah then was panned for defending his teammate's dubious opinion. KelleyCook 14:50, 2 March 2006 (UTC)Reply

Dennis Rodman said stuff too, but that quote by Isiah is accurate. Rodman said "Bird was very overrated and racked up MVPs because all the awards went to the best available paleface." -BJL

Nothing about him being with the Indiana Hoosiers, where he was born and his childhood. -Alan

Is there some kind of story as to why he spells his first name Isiah? (other than two previous Isiah's, I mean?). If so we should add it to the article, there's a lot of references to him as "Isaiah". - Nunh-huh 03:41, 4 May 2004 (UTC)Reply

It's most likely whoever named him was illiterate and didn't know how to spell Isaiah or saw it spelled that way from another person who was named by someone who too was illiterate.

This "material" is cut from the main article. I see zero basis for any of this. However, if citations can be found, go for it:

For all his accomplishments, Thomas is considered to be two-faced and dishonest by some former players and fans for orchestrating the trade of Adrian Dantley during the Pistons championship run. Thomas didn't like Dantley because he became the Piston's leading scorer as soon as he came to the team. Thomas, who was close to the owner of the team, wasn't used to sharing the scoring limelight. Most analysts agree that Thomas had Dantley traded to the Dallas Mavericks for another small forward, and long time friend of Thomas', Mark Aguirre, in the middle of the season that the Pistons won the championship. The deal, as insiders tell it, was that Aguirre was to continue his prolific scoring, just as long as he didn't outscore Thomas. Tmassey 18:07, 11 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Could I request that someone explain in the article why he's nicknamed 'Zeke'? thanks--Downwards 00:46, 16 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

I think it's time to restrict the access from non-registered Wiki contributors. JAF1970 15:45, 19 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

I agree 110%. FamicomJL 15:46, 19 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

I think it's time for you to relax and enjoy some Red Lobster. User:Zeke 16:20, 20 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Since the brawl has its own page, I've shortened the entries in Thomas' Wiki and linked them to the brawl. JAF1970 20:31, 19 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Who are these people? RESTRICT THE ACCESS. JAF1970 16:08, 21 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

I'm not in the habit of editing these pages, but I would suggest the addition of James Edwards (a page for him already exists) to the list of players on the 89 and 90 championship teams. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.179.121.173 (talk) 17:00, 11 January 2007 (UTC).Reply

This is Isiah Thomas' article, I don't think it's supposed to mention everybody he played with. Is this guy important for some particular reason? Trevor GH5 16:23, 7 May 2007 (UTC)Reply

This man lead his team to two championships, but somehow only one is important enough to mention in detail while every playoff loss leading up to the championship season has to be detailed and laid at his feet? This article is an embarrassment and hardly objective. 70.53.194.55 15:42, 28 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

I think this is a valid point. There really isn't much detail regarding the second championship run. Deepfryer99 (talk) 21:46, 7 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

Because Thomas was not the majority owner, nor the GM, I don't think it's accurate to say that he drafted all those players for the Raptors. He was in the front office when they were drafted. Two very different things.

There are a whole bunch unsourced nicknames in the lede of the article. I am removing them from the article and pasting it here pending sources.

Cuts (for the numerous cuts over his eyelids)^{[citation needed]}, The Baby-faced Assassin^{[citation needed]}, The Smiling Assassin^{[citation needed]}, and Tuss^{[citation needed]}. The nickname "smiling assassin" was given for his reputation as a fierce competitor on the court^{[citation needed]}

--brewcrewer (yada, yada) 20:47, 23 July 2008 (UTC)Reply

Why is the reference to the Dale and Thomas popcorn company under the "Controversy" heading?204.58.233.6 (talk) 20:14, 21 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

Fixed.[1] Thanks.--brewcrewer (yada, yada) 20:38, 21 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

Text on lawsuit by Anucha Browne Sanders was removed citing previous OTRS complaint. However, that was because the previous content was "mostly unsourced, apparently inaccurate, possibly defamatory." I dont know much about the case, but is it not significant enough to mention if done neutrally, which this edit seemed to do?—Bagumba (talk) 22:05, 7 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

Without knowing the specifics of the OTRS ticket, I'm just not sure how much we should say. The edit did seem OK to me, but there might be some subtle thing in there that could cause problems. Zagalejo^^^ 06:38, 8 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

I asked the admin for the OTRS edit to comment here.—Bagumba (talk) 07:38, 8 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

The new version is much shorter and less detailed than the previous, and doesn't contain any of the inaccuracies complained about in the OTRS ticket, so I have no objection to its reinstatement from an OTRS perspective. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 07:58, 8 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

From a NPOV and BLP perspective, it should be incorporated into the section about his leadership of the Knicks instead of an awkward unnecessary "controversy" section. --brewcrewer (yada, yada) 18:13, 8 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

Well, have at it. Zagalejo^^^ 03:29, 9 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

This latest edit seems to overly sanitize the details of Thomas' involvement and the case's resolution. I have reverted to previous version.—Bagumba (talk) 18:13, 21 May 2015 (UTC)Reply

he was special ed — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:6000:EDC8:1B00:CC2:5002:CD34:EB5F (talk) 21:53, 22 April 2016 (UTC)Reply

Someone with a poor sense of humour has changed the date to sometime in 1997. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.127.126.225 (talk) 01:16, 17 April 2017 (UTC)Reply

The vandalism has now been reverted. —DangerousJXD (talk) 02:07, 17 April 2017 (UTC)Reply

I came to the Isiah Thomas page to read under "Controversies" about the feud between Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas over Magic Johnson's claim that Thomas was spreading rumors that Johnson was gay (because of Magic Johnson testing positive for HIV in 1991), however there is nothing about it in this Wikipedia entry. Has it been in the Wikipedia entry before but deleted for some reason? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Betathetapi545 (talk • contribs) 13:03, 22 April 2017 (UTC)Reply

I'm legit surprised there's no mention in the article of Karl Malone KOing Isiah with his elbow in 1992 after Isiah had burned John Stockton for 44 in a previous game in Detroit. Just my two pennies. sixtynine ^{• whaddya want? •} 05:27, 13 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

I've tagged this article to what I feel is accordingly. In general I feel like this page needs a copyedit and general cleanup, as well as some condensing of his post-playing career section. There's way too many sections with just one or two sentences in them. We could probably make a combined "Broadcasting" section and move the Hall of Fame blurb into the NBA playing career section. But even besides that, it feels like this article is a little all over the place. 98.220.44.26 (talk) 15:28, 22 August 2018 (UTC)Reply

There is an RfC at WP:NBA that is relevant to this article. See here. Ladtrack (talk) 20:09, 4 April 2025 (UTC)Reply

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