Isiah Thomas

He might have been the smallest of the “Bad Boys”, but might have been the toughest, too.

The Detroit Pistons selected Isaiah Thomas with the second overall pick in the 1981 NBA Draft. He wasted no time getting acclimated to the league, making the NBA’s All-Rookie Team and starting at guard for the 1982 NBA All-Star team.

Thomas went on to play for the Detroit Pistons for 14 years from 1981 to 1994.During the span, he helped the Bad Boys from Motown win two titles (1989 and 1990), as well as earned the 1990 Finals MVP.

Isiah Thomas was a 12-time All-Star, was a two-time NBA All-Star Game MVO and was a three-time All-NBA First Team selection. Thomas was also selected to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and was honored into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.

Thomas was known for his tenacity on the court. He often supplied his team with great toughness and heart, staples of the Detroit Pistons teams that Thomas played for throughout his career.

Isiah Thomas was often at his best when it mattered the most – in the playoffs. Against the New York Knicks in Game 5 of the 1984 playoffs, Thomas scored 16 points in the last minute and a half to play in regulation to send the game into overtime. Ultimately the Knicks hung on for the victory, but Thomas’s performance was one of the greatest in NBA history.

Thomas finished his career with 18,822 points, 9,061 assists and 1,861 steals. After his career, Thomas went on to coach the Indiana Pacers from 2000 to 2003. While he led the Pacers to the playoffs in all three seasons as coach, Thomas never got Indiana out of the first round and was eventually replaced by Rick Carlisle.

Isiah Thomas went on to coach the New York Knicks in 2006-07 and 2007-08 NBA Seasons, but failed to make the playoffs in each of those years. Due to a lack of continuity with his players and multiple controversial situations including a sexual harassment charge, Mike D’Antoni replaced Thomas as Knicks’ head coach.