Florida International Is Isiah Thomas' Next Victim

First we get the news from Rivals:

MIAMI (AP)—Isiah Thomas sat in his new gym for an hour, at one point turning his gaze toward the Florida International players he’ll now coach.

“There’ll be a lot of ups,” Thomas said, almost in a cautionary tone. “There’ll be a lot of downs.”

He’s experienced plenty of both, of course.

Without the ups, FIU wouldn’t have wanted Thomas.

Without the downs, Thomas wouldn’t have needed FIU.

And so begins a surprising basketball marriage that got under way Wednesday when Thomas was introduced as FIU’s new coach, three days shy of the 1-year anniversary of his firing as coach of the New York Knicks. Thomas will not accept a salary in his first season, instead donating that money back to FIU, and will earn somewhere around $275,000 in the final four years of his deal.

That doesn’t count the $12 million or so the Knicks will continue paying him over the next two years.

“I did not come here for the money,” Thomas said.

Instead, he’ll have a chance to rebuild his tarnished Hall of Fame image.

As a player at Indiana and in the NBA, Isiah "Zeke" Thomas attained All American and Top 50 NBA honors but as Bill Simmons over at SonicsCentral notes, his post-playing career has been a "trainwreck".

Zeke takes over the Raptors as Executive VP and in a short 4 year period manages to wear out his welcome. A dispute with then-Raptors management over inappropriate conduct with team staff (sound familiar?) and improper giveaways to NCAA players results in his dismissal. Undaunted, Zeke flashes that cheesy sh*t-eating grin and moves on to the NBA on NBC, where his stilted, self-serving color commentary leads NBA to add Bill Walton to improve things.

Let me say that again - Zeke was SO bad they added Bill Walton to the broadcast to make it better.

After leaving NBA on NBC commentary in the capable hands of stoner Walton and East Coast know-nothing blowhards like Peter “Toys R Us” Vecsey, Zeke moves on yet again, this time to:

The Continental Basketball Association. The CBA used to be the NBA’s minor league, the precursor to today’s NBDL but a hell of a lot more organized. Even coaches like George Karl and Phil Jackson paid their dues in the CBA and it brought forth more than a few players who played sizeable roles on some very good teams; Vincent Askew, Tim Legler, Mario Elie. It was thought that under Zeke’s leadership the CBA might grow into a successful feeder league for the NBA itself. On August 3, 1999 an investment group headed by Zeke purchased the whole shebang including licensing and marketing for about $10 million.

Like any good incompetent executive who wants to look good for his shareholders the first thing Isiah did was cut salaries. And believe me, these guys weren’t making much money to begin with … about $1500 a week, which was then cut down to $1100 a week with players being responsible for many of their own travel expenses.

About eight months later Zeke was offered the head coaching job of the Indiana Pacers, who apparently came to this decision after Larry Bird consulted sheep entrails or huffed some serious glue. Isaiah signs a letter of intent to sell to the NBA Player’s Union but then ends up putting himself first, running away to coach the Pacers while putting the CBA in a blind trust … a mere 18 months after Zeke taking over league operations the CBA folds. That’s got to be some kind of record considering the league had been around over 50 years before he became involved with it.

Isiah did OK, not great with the Pacers … After getting cut loose from the Pacers the Knicks move in to sweep him up. Why God, why??? What the hell in his miserable resume would ever make anyone think this jerkoff was qualified to run a lemonade stand, let alone one of the premier franchises in the sport???

Things didn't go well with the Knicks as Rivals notes:

Thomas wants to move past the problems that marred his tenure with the Knicks, such as being the central figure in a sexual harassment lawsuit and, according to authorities, being found unconscious in his New York-area home last fall after someone at the residence called 911 to report someone overdosed on sleeping pills.

The only mystery here is why FIU would want a coach with an obvious morals problem and a backpack full of failure.