The New York Daily News Mitch Lawrence turned in a typical Isiah Thomas hatchet job yesterday (Hat Tip – Commenters at The Knix Fix). And while we will let others decide on the facts and opinions around the sexual harassment case and what that means, we want to address one simple statement.

In most of the article Lawrence, did the typical journalistic hit job by finding a couple  executives (anonymous, of course) who think like just like him. But it is when there is a deliberate twisting of facts that shows the lengths that he will go to support his argument. 

Lawrence writes: 

"Chances of a turnaround under Thomas are less than minimal, but Dolan should have known that when he hired Isiah to replace Scott Layden as the Knicks’ top basketball official. Thomas ruined the Continental Basketball Association and, in his only previous experience running an NBA team, lasted only two seasons with the expansion Toronto Raptors."


Okay, the first sentence is his own opinion. Let’s just agree to disagree there. But what about sentence #2? It is sentences like this that inspired COSELLOUT’S recent "Book of Isiah" series and most specifically: The Thomas Past: Rewriting Isiah’s Resume. Now I’m not going to put up a fight on the Continental Basketball Association because I don’t really care about it. As I previously mentioned, every businessman including Donald Trump had failures, but I never recall the CBA ever being relevant until it became a tool to use against Isiah. But what is relevant is his Raptor management experience as a President/GM and his Pacer coaching experience. Since Lawrence didn’t bring up his ability to develop young Pacer players like Jermaine O’Neal, Brad Miller, Ron Artest, and Al Harrington, let’s assume that he approves of Isiah’s performance. Now on to this one:

"lasted only two seasons with the expansion Toronto Raptors."


Sure it’s only nine measly words, but it tells a far greater story about journalistic sleight of hand.

Firstly, it is a straight-up lie. Thomas was announced as Raptors GM in May 1994, and after a failed bid for ownership, he resigned in November 1997. That equals 3.5 years. Now typos happen to all of us, and 90% of the time I would extend the benefit of the doubt on that one. However, it is the second, more insidious "lie of omission" that makes me wonder. 

Here is an example: If I wrote a negative piece on Larry Brown, and all it contained about his Detroit tenure was that "he lasted two seasons with the Pistons", would it be journalistically acceptable for me to not mention that Brown won a championship along the way? Of course not. And since I WILL be writing future articles on Larry Brown’s awful Knick tenure, you can bet that Brown will get due credit for his Pistons work, as Brown has always been at his best when coaching seasoned veterans.

And with Lawrence’s statement, any individual not knowledgeable with Thomas’ Raptors executive experience would be led to believe that Thomas did a  poor job.  And while this is the prevailing knowledge spewed by biased mainstream sports writers everywhere, nothing could be further from the truth. Since virtually all expansion franchises never win during their first  three seasons due to lack of talent, it is the executive’s job to fill that bare cupboard. This is exactly what Isiah did, and did about as well as any expansion GM has in the NBA (despite no #1 pick lotto prize). Here are the facts (reprinted with slight adjustment from Rewriting Isiah’s Resume):

In successive seasons, Thomas drafted Rookie of the Year Damon Stoudamire, shot-blocking and rebounding big man Marcus Camby, and Tracy McGrady (TMAC was drafted 9th in 1997 in perhaps NBA history’s worst ever draft crop.) He then added defensive stopper Doug Christie to create a strong foundation to put the Raptors into title contention for years to come. However, stemming from a failed bid to acquire team ownership, Thomas resigned after three years. Unfortunately, the post-Isiah Raptors abandoned his vision and embarked on a short-sighted strategy where all of his young prized acquisitions were let go or traded in exchange for “win-now” veterans such as Antonio Davis, Kevin Willis, and Charles Oakley. …Isiah’s stint with the Raptors showed his great eye for young talent. Within a couple of years after Isiah’s departure all of his Toronto acquisitions blossomed for other teams. McGrady achieved superstar status while Stoudamire, Camby, and Christie all went on to play critical roles for title contending teams. Camby helped bring the Knicks to the NBA finals, and Stoudamire and Christie teams both came within a Game 7 whisker of upending the dynasty Lakers. By foolishly abandoning Thomas’ vision, Raptor’s fans were left to wonder what might have been."


And by abandoning Isiah’s vision for the Raptors, it also created an opportunity for Lawrence and other biased sports-writers to omit or revise history to achieve their personal goals. Whatever your opinion of Thomas, no one should allow journalists to rewrite history.