photo: procorbis.com

In March of ‘81, Isiah Thomas became a college basketball legend. He was the one indispensable member of coach Bob Knight’s Indiana Hoosier squad that captured the Big 10 Championship en route to March Madness.

The team leader in scoring, steals and assists was not only the best pure guard in the country, he was the best the college game had seen since North Carolina’s amazing Phil Ford.

The irascible and stubborn coach Knight took unprecedented steps in revamping the Hoosier’s offensive sets in order to take full advantage of Isiah’s floor game, speed, spontaneous creativity and explosive, one-on-one proficiency.

In order to understand how much Isiah meant to the team, and an entire basketball crazed state, consider this. When word leaked out prior to the ‘81 NCAA Tourney that he was considering declaring hardship to make that pro money, the Ways and Means Committee of the Indiana House of Representatives suddenly stopped its meeting and called the university. Provided assurances that Isiah was staying in school, the relieved legislators went back about their political business.

photo: si.com

But before he ascended to such a lofty perch as a college sophomore, and prior to being recognized as one of the game’s greatest little men ever – sharing that exclusive, luxurious penthouse suite with non other than the incomparable Tiny Archibald – Isiah Lord Thomas III, aka Zeke, aka The Baby Faced Assassin, traveled an incredibly rough road.

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: heraldtimesonline.com

His mom would often take food home from her cafeteria job to feed her family. His father, also named Isiah, drove a truck.

“I wouldn’t trade anything for those days now,” Isiah told Sports Illustrated’s William F. Reed in 1981. “You learned to take care of your shoes, you learned to take care of your shirt.”

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!”

photo: procorbis.com

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.

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.

photo: flickr.com

“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.”

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.

photo: daylife.com

As a 5′6″ freshman at St. Joseph’s HS, Isiah showed the flair, dazzle, determination and rare ability that had scouts salivating. He was tempted to team up with his childhood friend in college, Mark Aguirre, who was killing it at hometown DePaul.

He instead chose to get out of Chicago. He liked how Bob Knight stood up for himself and almost came to blows with his older brother, who insulted the coach on a visit to the Thomas home.

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 (a feat that even the remarkable Magic Johnson didn’t accomplish) and was selected for the ‘80 Olympic team, which ultimately boycotted the Moscow games.

photo: daylife.com

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.

During his remarkable two years at Indiana, the school’s fans would display bed sheets with the quote from the Bible’s book of Isaiah that read – “And a little child shall lead them.”

Before the championship game against North Carolina, Dean Smith said he was among the best point guards in college basketball history.

photo: si.com

In only 26 minutes of action in the Final Four against LSU, Isiah scored 14 points on 6 of 8 shooting and handed out four assists. On the day that President Ronald Reagan got shot, The little fella proceeded to sparkle in the second half of 63-50 championship victory over Carolina.

After going 1 for 7 in the first half, he took over with a dizzying array of buckets, steals, crisp passes and superb floor generalship. He finished with 23 points and 5 assists en route to the tourney’s Most Outstanding Player Award.

He was one of the best pure college point guards ever and without the asphalt of the Windy City, Indiana University never cuts down those nets in ‘81.

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