Brawl: Your guesses here on suspension lengths

Many of you are coloring your judgments about Isiah's playing career because of what he has done (or hasn't done) since he finished playing.

The rest of you denigrating him here either never saw him, didn't see him nearly often enough or are dumb as rocks.

This guy was a great, great player. Maybe he wasn't Magic Johnson, or Oscar Robertson. Fine. Those guys were much bigger, and used every inch and pound they had to help them achieve greatness. Magic simply had court vision and anticipation that was unique in the game's history.

Isiah is a little guy who was a tremendous scorer, who then completely changed his game and helped his team win two championships they absolutely would not have won without him. To say that Dumars was as responsible or more responsible for winning those titles as Isiah is simply asinine.

Rank him below Magic and Bird as players. Behind Magic, Oscar and Stockton as point guards. But give the guy his due. He was an absolute first-ballot, no-questions-asked Hall of Famer.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

 

Um, OK. You completely missed my point. I wrote about his playing career.

 

Good grief.

Do we need to get Karl Malone out here to make Zeke go away? Many accused The Mailman of being too forceful when he gashed open Isiah's head during their playing days.

If that story is even half true, Elliotte, then Thomas should be suspended with the others. That is, if he's not fired now, not only for this mess but for the one he's been making for years.

 

Lordy A_F, you need to go eat some more fruit roll-ups in your fallout shelter and read up on your history.

Thomas didn't win a freaking thing without a MAJOR cast around him, notably Joe Dumars in the backcourt. Mark Aguirre, Bill Laimbeer, James Edwards, Rick Mahorn, Vinnie Johnson, et al, were not tomato cans.

And besides, the title argument is brainless when used on individual players anyway.

And stay away from the vapid Bird/Johnson/Thomas/Jordan era bullshit. None of those players alone won a damn thing.

 

Thank you, slowcenter, for being the voice of reason. You're exactly right on every point.

You can make the case that Payton was better than Isiah -- I'd venture to say that most people who saw them both in their prime wouldn't agree with it, but it's not a ridiculous argument to make. But to say that Payton was worlds better than Zeke? No way.

 

Excellent post. However, if given the choice, I'd take Zeke over Stockton. Looking at each player in their prime, I'd put Stockton and Payton just a tiny bit over Nash and Kidd.

 

Isiah Thomas was a better player than George Karl. : :

 

* pops head out of fall out shelter, begins to uncurl a fruit roll up *

Isiah vs Frazier/Cousy - Care to make an argument why Isiah ranks below them? It's all very close ... maybe i just went with Isiah because I'm more familiar with his work.

In the list of Top 10 pGs i just looked at, West is mostly considered a 2.

Bubbler, pal ... Magic had a supporting cast. Bird had a supporting cast. Jordan even had Pippen and Rodman. EVERYONE has a supporting cast. Isiah was the best player on the two Pistons titles teams. The engine. He earned a Finals MVP because of it.

 

Jerry West played 14 seasons, missing considerable playing time (20+ games) in three of those seasons due to injury. In the 11 remaining seasons, he led the Lakers in assists in 10. Usually by more than a 2-1 margin over the next closest player.

The delineation between point guards and shooting guards was not nearly as clearly drawn then as it is today, but West basically ran the show for the Lakers.

 

Getting back to the suspensions:

Anthony -- 25 games (10 for the punch, 15 for running like a bitch immediately afterwards). He should get more, but I'll honestly be surprised if he gets the 25.

Robinson -- 10 games

Collins and Smith -- 5 apiece

 

A sexual harassment lawsuit.

The Larry Brown mess, where Stern had to intercede.

Ugly words for ESPN analyst (and by all accounts class act) Greg Anthony.

Now this.

Regardless of what happens with a suspension for Isiah, my bet is Stern gets on the horn to Dolan and says, "What's the best way to get rid of him?"