AT 19, THOMAS MAKES HIS DECISION
April 27, 1981
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April 27, 1981, Section C, Page 1 - Buy Reprints
IT was Draft Day in the ghetto. That's what everyone there called it. On a few days each year, chieftains of the notorious Vice Lords street gang appeared at certain homes on the West Side of Chicago to take recruits. On this summer night in 1966, 25 Vice Lord chiefs stopped in front of the home of Mary Thomas. She had nine children, seven of them boys, ranging from Lord Henry, 15 years old, to Isiah, 5. The Thomases lived on the first floor of a two-story red brick building on Congress Street, facing the Eisenhower Expressway.
One of the Lords rang the bell. Mary Thomas, wearing glasses, answered the door. She saw behind him the rest of his gang, all wearing gold tams and black capes and some had guns in their waist bands that glinted under the street lamps.
''We want your boys,'' the gang leader told her. ''They can't walk around here and not be in no gang.'' She looked him in the eye. ''There's only one gang around here, and that's the Thomas gang,'' she said, ''and I lead that.'' ''If you don't bring those boys out, we'll get 'em in the streets,'' he said. She shut the door. The gang members waited. She walked through the living room where the rest of the family sat. Isiah, frightened, watched her go into the bedroom and return with a sawed-off shotgun. She opened the front door.
She pointed the gun at the caped figure before her. ''Get off my porch,'' she said, ''or I'll blow you 'cross the Expressway.'' He stepped back, and slowly he and his gang disappeared into the night.
Isiah Thomas never joined a gang, and was protected from the ravages of street life - the dope, the drinking, the stealing, the killings -by his mother and his brothers, even those who eventually succumbed to the streets. Two of his brothers became heroin addicts, one was a pimp, a couple would be jailed and one became a Vice Lords chief.
Isiah, though, was the baby of the family, and its hope. He became an honor student in grade school and high school, an all-America basketball player in high school and college, and, as a 6-foot-1-inch point guard, led Indiana University to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship last month. After only a few weeks out of high school, he was a standout on the United States team that won the gold medal in the 1979 Pan-American Games, and was a starter on the 1980 United States Olympic team.
The pros liked what they saw. ''He's a terrific talent,'' said Rod Thorn, general manager of the Chicago Bulls. ''Not only physically - and he seems adept at every phase of the game - but he has a charisma, an ability to inspire confidence in his teammates that only a few players have, like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and Julius Erving.''
Last weekend, Isiah Thomas, a 19-year-old sophomore and B student majoring in Forensics, with an eye toward law school, made an important decision. He passed up his last two years of college basketball to declare his eligibility for the National Basketball Association's draft on June 5. Thomas said that three teams - New Jersey, Detroit and Chicago - had been told he could expect an offer of at least $1 million to sign.
Thomas had wrestled with his decision all season. ''Don't do it,'' said Bobby Knight, the Indiana basketball coach. ''You can still improve in basketball. You could be worth more.'' ''Stay in school,'' said Quinn Buckner, a former Indiana player and now with the Milwaukee Bucks. ''The college experience at your age is valuable and can't ever be repeated.''
''What's left for you to prove in college?'' asked his brother, Gregory. ''Go only if the price is right,'' said his former high school coach, Gene Pingatore. ''Don't sell yourself short.'' ''Son,'' said Mary Thomas, ''do what makes you happy.''
The idea of turning pro had been with Isiah for as long as he can remember, instilled by his brothers who had their own basketball dreams squashed.
''There was a lot to consider,'' said Thomas. He sat on the arm of a couch in his small apartment in the Fountain Park complex on the Indiana campus in Bloomington. He wore a red baseball cap, a blue U.S.A. Olympic jacket, jeans and yellow sneakers. He speaks softly, thoughtfully, with careful articulation. Sometimes he'll flash that warm, dimpled smile that has become familiar from newspaper photos and national magazine covers. Behind that smile is also a toughness and intensity - twice last season he was involved in fights in games.
''I know I'm a role model for a lot of people back in the ghetto,'' said Thomas. ''Not too many of us get the chance to get out, to go to college. If I quit school, what effect would that have on them?
''And I had said I wanted to be a lawyer, and one day return there and help the people. They need it. I've seen kids who stole a pair of pants and they get a five-year prison sentence. Literally. Because there was no adequate legal help for them. I know that I'll get my law degree. I know you can only play basketball for so many years. Then you've got the rest of your life ahead of you.
''And I have to think of my family. My mother worked hard all her life and for not much money. My father left when I was 3 years old, and my mom kept us together by herself. She worked in the community center, she worked in the church, she did whatever she could. She's got a job with the housing authority in Chicago now, and she shouldn't be working. Her eyes are bad, and her heart's not good. I'd like her to quit.''
He feels that with the connections he makes in basketball he can help his brothers. He has already opened a few doors. Larry has a job with city housing and Mark is with the police department.
''I can always go back to school,'' Isiah said. ''But I can't always make a million dollars. I won't always have a chance to provide stability for my family. And I'm doing it at basketball, a game I love.''
He was a prodigy in basketball the way Mozart was in music. At age 3, Amadeus was composing on a harpsichord; at 3, Isiah could dribble and shoot baskets. He was the halftime entertainment at the neighborhood Catholic Youth Organization games. ''We gave Isiah an old jersey that fell like a dress on him, and he wore black Oxfords and tossed up shots with a high arc,'' said Ted Kalinowski, who was called Brother Alexis before he left the order. ''Isiah was amazing.''
By the time Thomas was in the fourth grade, he was a standout on the eighth-grade team at Our Lady of Sorrows. His mother and brothers watched him closely. Mary Thomas made sure that he went straight home from school, and did not dawdle in the streets. ''If I did,'' he said, ''my brothers would kick my butt.''
From the time he was in grade school, his brothers lectured him. The seven of them sat in a bedroom and closed the door so that their mother and two sisters would not hear the horror stories of the street. They would take him for a walking tour and point out dangers. ''They told me about the mistakes they had made, so that I wouldn't have to make them,'' said Thomas.
Lord Henry, for one, had been an all-city basketball player at St. Phillips; people in the neighborhood contend that he was the best basketball player in the family. He still holds the Catholic League single-season scoring record. But he had problems with discipline and grades and was thrown out of school. He went into the streets, and became a junkie. Isiah could see for himself the tortures his brother went through and the suffering it caused his mother.
As an eighth-grader, Isiah sought a scholarship to attend Weber High School, a Catholic League basketball power. The coach turned him down, too short. He was 5-6. ''Look, I'm 6-4,'' Larry Thomas argued to the coach. ''My brother will grow just as tall.''
Gene Pingatore, coach at St. Joseph's in Westchester, a Chicago suburb, was convinced. ''He was a winner,'' said Pingatore. ''He had that special aura.''
At Westchester, a predominately white school in a white middleclass neighborhood, Thomas endeavored to learn text-book English. At one point his brother, Gregory, was confused. Isiah recalls his brother saying: '' 'You done forgot to talk like a nigger. Better not come around here like no sissy white boy.' ''
''Hey,'' Isiah said, laughing, ''pull up on that jive.'' But the brothers, like Isiah, understood the importance of language, and the handle it could provide in helping to escape the ghetto, a dream they shared.
''What I was doing,'' said Isiah, ''was becoming fluent in two languages.'' Isiah would rise at 5:30 in the morning to begin the one-and-ahalf-hour journey by elevated train and bus to Westchester. ''Sometimes I'd look out of the window and see Isiah going to school in the dark and I'd cry,'' said Mary Thomas. ''I'd give him grits with honey and butter for breakfast. And felt bad that I couldn't afford eggs and bacon for him, too. He sure did like to eat.''
Although he exceled in basketball, Isiah neglected his studies and nearly flunked out of high school after his freshman year. ''You're a screwed-up kid,'' said Larry. ''You can go one of two ways from here. I had a choice like this once. I chose hustlin'. It's a disgustin' kind of life. You got the chance of a lifetime.''
Pingatore emphasized that without a C average he could not get a college scholarship, under the N.C.A.A. rules. ''From that point on.'' recalls Isiah's sister, Ruby, ''he was a changed kid.'' He made the St. Joseph's honor roll in each of his next three years.
He also led his team to second place in the Illinois state high school tournament, and was chosen all-American. He had his pick of hundreds of college scholarships. He chose Indiana because it was close and because Bobby Knight played it straight. ''He didn't try to bribe me,'' said Mary Thomas. ''Other schools offered hundreds of thousands of dollars. One coach promised to buy me a beautiful house. Another one said that there'd be a Lear jet so I could go to all Isiah's games. All Bobby Knight promised was he'd try to get Isiah a good education and give him a good opportunity to get better in basketball. He said that I might not even be able to get a ticket for a basketball game. I liked that.'' She also got tickets, and went to all of Isiah's games, sometimes traveling to Bloomington by bus.
He made all-Big Ten as a freshman. Last season he was a consensus all-American. Despite this, he and Coach Knight had conflicts. Thomas appreciated Knight's basketball mind, and knew that the coach relied on his ability as a floor leader, but Thomas had trouble swallowing what he considered Knight's sometimes insulting and dehumanizing behavior. He used vile language to his players in private and in public. He physically abused them (in the Pan-Am Games, Knight, coach of the United States team, had grabbed Thomas by the jersey and shook him).
Once, Thomas, who had been appointed team captain, decided to talk with Knight about the team's poor morale. Thomas believed that Indiana -going poorly at the beginning of the season - had some of the best players in the country, and could win the championship if they could pull together and not fight the coach. ''There's a problem here, coach,'' said Isiah.
''There's no problem here,'' replied Knight.
Indiana, however, did improve and made it to the final of the N.C.A.A. tournament against North Carolina at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on the night of March 30.
Amid the blaring of the school bands and the waving of pom-pons and the screams from the crowd - the Indiana rooters were sectioned on one side of the court in red and white, the school colors, and the North Carolina fans on the other side wearing blue and white - the game was tightly played. North Carolina led by 26-25 as Isiah Thomas took the ball from under the Tar Heels' basket, and dribbled slowly upcourt. There were only 12 seconds to go in the half and tense Indiana fans wondered if the Hoosiers would get another shot off, especially with Thomas's casualness.
''I didn't want the team to press, I wanted them to relax, and if they saw I wasn't rushing I hoped they wouldn't either,'' Thomas said later. With two seconds to go he hit Randy Wittman with a pass in the corner, and Wittman connected, giving Indiana its first lead of the game, and a terrific lift as it went to the locker room.
Starting the second half, Thomas stole two straight passes from North Carolina and scored. Indiana went ahead by 31-26 and went on to a 63-50 victory. ''Those two steals,'' said Dean Smith, the North Carolina coach, ''were the turning point in the game.'' Thomas scored a game-high 23 points, and had five assists and four steals. He was named the outstanding player in the championship tournament.
As soon as the game ended Indiana fans rushed on the court. One of them, Thomas saw, was a black woman in red suit jacket with a button on her lapel. The button read, ''Isiah Thomas's Mom. Mrs. Mary Thomas.'' Near the center of the court they embraced. She was crying and it looked as if Isiah was holding back tears.
''Thanks, mom, thanks for everything you've gone through for me. I hope I can do something for you.'' ''You done enough, honey,'' she said. Reporters and camera men were all around them. And Isiah whispered in his mother's ear. ''Well, you can do one more thing for me,'' he said.
''What's that, baby?'' ''I heard you in the first half when I threw a bad pass. You hollered, 'What the hell are you doin'?' Don't cuss at me on the court. I was fixin' to get it together.''
Then Isiah was scooted off to receive the winner's trophy. And the woman who wore the button proudly saying she was Isiah Thomas's mom, took out a handkerchief and wiped her eyes.
A version of this article appears in print on April 27, 1981, Section C, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: AT 19, THOMAS MAKES HIS DECISION.
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
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