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Smart move:
Magic Johnson Won’t Recommend Isiah Thomas for Other NBA Jobs
By Erik Matuszewski and Scott Soshnick
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Magic Johnson says he won’t make the
same mistake twice and recommend Isiah Thomas for front office
or coaching jobs in the National Basketball Association.
Johnson five years ago told New York Knicks executives that
they should hire Thomas, his good friend. Thomas, a Hall of Fame
point guard, was fired as coach and president of the Knicks last
year as the team suffered through its seventh straight losing
season and was at the center of a sexual-harassment lawsuit won
by a former team official.
“I couldn’t recommend him again because he’s failed a
couple times now,” Johnson, who won five championships with the
Los Angeles Lakers, said in an interview with Bloomberg Radio’s
“On the Ball” program airing Nov. 29. “So I would probably
have to just pass on that one.”
Thomas spokesman Jesse Derris declined to comment and said
that he would try to contact his client.
Knicks owner James Dolan turned to Thomas to run his team
in 2003 at the recommendation of Johnson, who declined the job.
During his tenure in New York, Thomas had a 56-108 record as
coach; feuded with his top player, Stephon Marbury; and was
widely criticized for player moves.
Courtside Kiss
Thomas and Johnson exchanged a courtside kiss on the cheek
before their teams squared off in the 1988 NBA Finals.
Johnson’s Lakers beat Thomas’s Detroit Pistons that year.
Thomas helped the Pistons win titles the next two seasons.
After his playing career, Thomas was part owner and
executive vice president of the expansion Toronto Raptors, owner
of the Continental Basketball Association, which declared
bankruptcy and ceased operation under his watch and coached the
Indiana Pacers from 2000-03. While the Pacers reached the NBA
Finals after the 1999-2000 season with Larry Bird as coach, they
lost in the first round three times under Thomas.
Thomas was fired by the Pistons and joined the Knicks in
December 2003 after a recommendation from Johnson, who was 5-11
as Lakers coach in 1993-94.
“At that time I thought he was the best one available,”
said Johnson, also a member of the Hall of Fame. “If the
circumstances were still the same, yes, I would do it again. But
if it was now, probably I wouldn’t because of the track record
he has. Sometimes people are good at their job and sometimes
people fail at it.”
Payroll
Thomas was fired in April by the Knicks, who turned to
Donnie Walsh as president and Mike D’Antoni as coach. He remains
on the Knicks’ payroll in an unspecified capacity.
Johnson, who is releasing a book on entrepreneurial success
entitled “32 Ways to Become a Champion in Business,” said he’s
unsure whether Thomas wants to get back into coaching or running
an NBA team.
“He just failed in New York and he’d be the first one to
tell you that,” said Johnson, whose Magic Johnson Enterprises
has a net worth of more than $700 million. “I don’t know if he
would want to do it again.”
For Related News:
National Basketball Association news: NI NBA <GO>
--With reporting by Mason Levinson in New York. Editors: Larry
Siddons, Jay Beberman |
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