photo: si.com

During this holiday season, I’ll be dipping into the archives to offer up some updated goodies in the form of some of the most delectable “The Playground Gave Us…” joints from ‘08.

Isiah Lord Thomas III, aka Zeke, aka The Baby Faced Assassin, was among the game’s greatest little men ever, sharing that exclusive, luxurious penthouse suite with non other than Tiny Archibald.

The youngest of Mary Thomas’ nine kids, Isiah grew up in abject poverty in West Chicago. The family went, at times, without heat and food during the notorious, harsh Windy City winters. Due to a lack of beds, the siblings had to take turns sleeping on the floor.

photo: si.com

The often told story – one that explains Isiah’s feistiness, combativeness and willingness to fight, scrape and battle any and everyone in his path – is of his mother standing on her porch, holding a sawed off shotgun. With all those boys in her house, the Thomas’ were prime recruiting material for the neighborhood gangs. One day, a mob of them showed up at the crib to inform Mary Thomas that her sons were being drafted. Resisting the gang was not an option, she was told.

“There’s only one gang here, and I lead it,” she told them. “Get off my porch or I’ll blow you off it!”

Amidst the backdrop of drugs, gangs and violence, Isiah honed his genius on the playground. His legend formed as a shorty, schooling junior high school cats as a mere fourth grader. His handles, and uncanny, acrobatic forays to the rim were developed on the asphalt.

“In Chicago we had to take the ball to the hole. You couldn’t stand outside and shoot jumpshots because the wind was blowing too hard. And if you missed a jumpshot, you might get beat up, so you definitely had to perfect your dribbling skills and get to the basket,” he once told espn.com.

photo: si.com

Isiah and his boys traveled throughout the city, looking for the best runs against the toughest comp. Once they went into the Maywood area on 10th street to take on a crew led by another young fella establishing his rep at the time – Glenn “Doc” Rivers, who now coaches the world champion Celtics and was a beast in his own right at the PG position in HS, college at Marquette and in the pros.

”We lost four out of five games to Doc’s guys, and then we won the last,” Isiah told Ira Berkow of the NYTimes in ‘88. “They didn’t care for that. And they started attacking us. We had gone there with our bikes and couldn’t get away. Someone called the cops, and we ran into the Rec center. Those guys hemmed us in and threw rocks. That’s the way it was.”

photo: espn.com

Aggressiveness – that’s the link between all the great Chi-Town PG’s from Mo Cheeks, Doc Rivers, Isiah, Will “The Thrill” Bynum, Sherron Collins (check my man Jesse Washington’s ill feature on Sherron in Bounce Mag issue #15), etc. Like its rich gangster history of Capone, Dillinger and Larry Hoover, it runs in a Chicago cat’s blood to get down and dirty and fight for what they aim to claim.

As a 5′6″ freshman at St. Joseph’s HS, Isiah showed the flair, dazzle, determination and rare ability that had scouts salivating. By the end of his senior year, before enrolling at Indiana, he was running the point for the Gold Medal winning American team at the Pan-Am games. He started for Bobby Knight straight out the gate, was the first freshman ever to make First Team, All-Big 10 and was selected for the ‘80 Olympic team, which ultimately boycotted the Moscow games.

A deadly shooter with radar from anywhere on the court, Isiah was just plain smooove! Talk about clever with an insane assist game and you’re talking about him. Points, assists, steals, leadership and intangibles – that’s what he brought to the floor every night.

photo: si.com

As a soph, the little fella took the NCAA chip in ‘81, dropping 23 points against Carolina in the final en route to his Final Four MVP honors. His pro accomplishments are too numerous to mention. His only peer at the time manning the 1 was Magic.

For all you really need to know about the saying, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog,” – check game 6 of the ‘88 Finals when Zeke dropped 25 points in the 3rd quarter against Magic and the Lakers, on a severely sprained ankle, en route to 43 joints, 8 dimes and 6 steals. Bananas!

The Pistons were horrid before he got there, suffering from the mentality of a 30 year abyss. Look where they are now. And no one is more responsible for that franchise being where it is today than Isiah.

Say what you will about the Bad Boys, the questionable coaching and G.M. legacy. On the floor, Isiah was the truth. Without the Chicago playgrounds, Bobby Knight does not win that NCAA chip in ‘81 and the late ’80s Pistons don’t get it done.

THE PLAYGROUND IS NOT THE PROBLEM. IT IS THE SOLUTION!