There was once a time when Isiah Thomas was not associated with losing. He was a member of the feared Bad Boys teams in Detroit before he destroyed his reputation. After racking up hundreds of losses with the Knicks, Isiah recently took over the Florida International basketball program.
Thomas’ stint at FIU got off to a rocky start. The newly appointed coach complained when he got the news that his team would face the Tarheels and caught flack for it. Unfortunately for Isiah, the tournament was also in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. When FIU took the court, Thomas was greeted with chants of “Magic, Magic!”. The chants were references to Magic Johnson’s recent book where he completely trashed Isiah.
FIU ended up dropping the game to North Carolina. In reality, they never really had a chance. Here’s what the rookie coach said about his team:
I’m very proud of our team. They were very scrappy. They were extremely competitive. The first thing you got to do in order to win, you got to learn how to fight. I thought [Monday] we came in and we fought. But we weren’t quite good enough and we weren’t quite big enough, but at least we fought for the win. And if you learn how to fight, then one day you can win.
Hopefully, FIU improves their fighting skills faster than the Knicks did with Isiah at the helm. On a sad note, Isiah’s mother is in the hospital preparing for surgery. We hope that she recovers fully before Thomas’ coaching career is over.
Tags: 2k sports, basketball, college basketball, florida international university, isiah thomas, ncaa, tarheels, university of north carolina
