Scary stuff here.  It’s being reported that Isiah Thomas was rushed to the hospital just after midnight after overdosing on Lunesta sleeping pills.

PURCHASE, N.Y. (CBS) ? Harrison. N.Y. police were sent to the home of former New York Knicks president Isiah Thomas early Friday morning in response to a call that he had overdosed on sleeping pills, a source confirmed to CBS Station WCBS-TV in New York.

Thomas was rushed to White Plains Hospital for treatment, but his condition is not yet known.

Barry Watkins, vice president of communications for Madison Square Garden, told The Journal News newspaper, “Isiah is fine.”

Sources tell WCBS-TV that police arrived at Thomas’ home shortly after midnight in response to a 911 call from a cell phone and that Thomas’ condition was being classified as an overdose.

According to the Daily News, police say the victim consumed “roughly 10 Lunesta sleeping pills.” - wcbstv

I’m glad that it’s being reported that Isiah is ok.  It seems odd to have someone involved with the Knicks org. updating Isiah’s status but he is still still technically employed by them.  It’s just a mystery as to what capacity?

I hope this is accidental and not something deeper that needs addressing.  Speedy recovery Zeke.  I’ll update this as more details come out. (link attributive: DBB)

UPDATES:
1) A spokesperson for Isiah, Jesse Derris, says Isiah was not hospitalized contrary to many reports. “No health issue with Isiah last night,” Derris said in a telephone interview. - via Bloomberg.com

2) The latest reports say Isiah was unconscious, but breathing on his own.

3) nydailynews.com:

“He’s fine,” Thomas’ son, Joshua, 20, told the Daily News, when asked about Isiah.

Joshua Thomas, a student at Indiana University, claimed that cops went to his family’s home because his sister, Lauren, 18, who suffers from hypoglycema, wasn’t feeling well.

“Reports of sleeping pills are false,” Joshua Thomas added. “He doesn’t take sleeping pills. He’s doesn’t really take anything that’s not organic.

“He looked faint from stressing over her. They sat him down, let him drink some water. He’s fine,” the son said.

Joshua Thomas said that his father and sister were both resting at a hospital in Greenwich, Conn.

Seems to be a lot of conflicting reports.  Probably have to wait until tomorrow before the details are cleared up.

4) Isiah himself denies the claim of an overdose on sleeping pills via cellphone.  This is getting kind of weird.

Not much going on in the way of Pistons news so I started to surf other parts of the web the other day. I came across something on eBay that sent nostalgia shooting down my spine. The auction for this Isiah Thomas / Magic Johnson Salem Sportswear big head caricature t-shirt.

Who else remembers these? I loved these shirts. They were pretty big when I was in grade school, but I don’t see ‘em that much these days. I liked these better than any other types of sports shirts. The best were the group shots like when team’s won championships. Whom ever they commissioned to do the drawings of the athletes was pretty good at it because the likenesses were pretty spot on in most instances.

…but he’ll remain with the Knicks in an unnamed role.  Makes sense.  They owe him a lot of money still.

“I can’t really tell you where he failed with the club. I think that we reached a point this season when our team didn’t compete for a long time,” new team president Donnie Walsh said. “The bottom line is that we haven’t won and the team didn’t look like it was motivated to try to win and be competitive.”

Walsh said that isn’t always the coach’s fault, but Thomas is blamed for enough already — sometimes unfairly, Walsh added.

“I feel like some of the bigger events that happened on the way with Isiah have overshadowed some of the good things he’s done for the franchise,” Walsh said.

Walsh said no player brought up Thomas’ name during their exit meetings Thursday, though Walsh said he wasn’t going to be asking for it, anyway.

Thomas, the coach for two seasons, will remain with the organization in an unnamed role, reporting directly to Walsh, who said he informed Thomas of the decision Friday. (Via ESPN)

If I had to guess it’d be in some sort of scouting capacity.  Zeke’s a pretty good judge of talent, just not so much on character.

Here’s an old Isiah Thomas commercial for NBA’s “fan-tastic” campaign. Even though this one is a tad weird and even creepy, I love these old fantastic commercials from the 80’s. NBA TV, or was it leagues pass? Well, one of them used to still air these vintage gems, but I haven’t seen one in quite awhile. Thank God for YouTube.

Here’s some quotes I’ve come across on the ever building resurgence of a Pistons/Celtics rivalry

Bill Laimbeer - “The era that I grew up was very intense competition,” says Bill Laimbeer. “It was almost hatred of the other team and it still holds to this day on any players of those teams. Your teammates are all that matter and the other team is the enemy. There were some bitter rivalries and some bitter feelings … and I still won’t talk to Larry Bird.”



Isiah Thomas - “It was extremely personal [..] you just wanted to beat the (expletive) out of them, [..]I’ll say hello, but I’ll never be friends with them, [..] there’s no personal dislike. (pause) … We’re Pistons, they’re Celtics”



…Quotes via Pistons.com: Hatred No Longer A Part Of The NBA

Chucky Atkins - “The thing about Detroit that separates them from Boston right now is, they’ve been through wars together,” Atkins said. “When it gets tough, they know they can rely on each other. Boston might have a good record, but they haven’t really been in any wars with anyone yet. So that could be the story toward the end of the year.”



Adrian Dantley - “I can see that being a good series,” Dantley said. “And that rivalry happening again.”



…Quotes via Denver Post: Celtics show “bad” attitude

By the way…

In unrelated former Pistons news; Chris Webber told a Sacramento T.V. reporter he’ll be back in two weeks. No confirmation on who he’ll be signing with though.

You can say a lot of things about Isiah Thomas, but one thing that won’t change is that he’s a living legend here in the Motor City. This was evident Wednesday night by the Palace crowd that cheered the captain of the back-to-back world champion Bad Boys. It had nothing to do with rooting for the opposition and everything to do with showing support to one our own going through a tough time.

It’s just too bad things couldn’t have been worked out where Isiah could have stayed in the family the way many of the other Bad Boys did. We, as a community, helped raise Zeke. He wasn’t just a hired gun. We experienced the ups and downs together, 13 seasons worth. We watched him grow from a 19 year old rookie to the leader of the Pistons’ teams that he led to three straight NBA Finals. That’s why we will always have Isiah’s back and I know he appreciates it.

This may not be too popular with New York fans and I don’t blame them. It’s easy to empathetic to Isiah from our vantage point. We’ve got a team that wins every year while their’s is a once proud franchise trying to get back to respectability with Isiah at the wheel. I don’t want to get too deep into it but Isiah shouldn’t shoulder all the blame. He’s tried to put together a winner. He’s stockpiled the Knicks roster with talent, which he’s as good as anyone in spotting. His drawback was not finding the right talent. Those Knicks just don’t compliment each other at all. Former Pistons teammate John Long put it best; “Everybody is throwing him under the bus right now and it’s not right,” He has to be accountable for some things, but the bottom line is he can’t make his players play with pride.”

Hopefully Isiah can turn it around in New York and achieve like he did in Detroit. We’re pulling for ya’ Zeke!

“There’s a great love affair here with the players and the community and I’m glad that still exists,” Isiah said. “That’s what I have to do in New York – I have to get our team to bond with our community.” (via: Pistons.com)

As some of you might know, mainly those who have been members of the Pistons Nation message forum, I used to write the site zeke11.com (which no longer is up). It was an Isiah Thomas fan site. There’s a few different reasons why I stopped publishing that site but that’s neither here nor there. Since there isn’t too much going on in Pistons land I deceided to reprint an article I did for the Zeke11 site. It’s a look at the often enigmatic Pistons career of Adrian Dantley with an emphesis on his realtionship with team captian Isiah Thomas.

Pistons’ General Manager Jack McClosky had been coveting Adrian Dantley for two years, but Jazz GM, Frank Layden, wasn’t interested in dealing Dantley until Adrian held out for more money and the two began to fued.

Adrian Dantley came to the Pistons by way of trade on August 21st, 1986 in exchange for forward Kelly Tripucka and center Kent Benson. This was not the first time Dantley was dealt in his NBA career. He saw the “business end” of sports, in 1977 following his rookie year with the Buffalo Braves when he was traded to the Indiana Pacers where he played 23 games before being dealt to the Lakers. He spent the rest of the 1977-78 season in L.A. and played one more there before being again dealt to the Jazz where he stayed 7 seasons, his longest stint of his career.

Dantley enjoyed much individual success as a member of the Utah Jazz. He racked up four consecutive 30 plus points per game years that included two scoring titles to go along with his six All-Star births. But, Dantley did not realize much team success. His Jazz teams didn’t make it into the playoffs until his final two years in Utah, but they could get out of the second round.

Adrian now had a chance to get in Detroit what had eluded him to this point of his NBA career, a World’s Championship. Jack McClosky had been had been drafting and trading for years prior, assembling a team that could eventually overthrow the Celtics reign in the Eastern Conference, and A.D. was his latest prized acquisition. Dantley was a rugged low post player that was brought in to do battle with Boston’s famed front line of Bird, McHale, and Parrish. Continue Reading »