Gulp! Isiah Helps Knicks Prepare For Draft

The last thing New York Knicks fans want to see these days is Isiah Thomas anywhere near their beloved team.

Thomas said on Sunday that he has been doing OK and helping the New York Knicks prepare for the NBA draft, since police responded to an accidental overdose at his home last October.
    
Police were called to the home Oct. 24 and said they found a man passed out on the floor after an accidental overdose on sleeping pills. Authorities have not publicly identified the man as Thomas.

Thomas was in Las Vegas to tape a television appearance with Bob Knight, his former coach at Indiana, and sportscaster Billy Packer.

Thomas said that everything has been going well for him personally, and that he hasn't missed any significant time in his work for the Knicks.
    
“I've still been very active, seeing a lot of games and doing a lot of scouting and looking forward to helping (Knicks president Donnie Walsh) with the draft,” Thomas told The Associated Press.

Thomas was fired late last season from his positions as coach and team president, but Walsh kept him on in a consulting and advising role.
    
Thomas said he was scouting at the Pac-10 tournament last week in Los Angeles.
    
Thomas mingled with a few fans, smiled for photos and signed autographs before and during the filming of “Survive and Advance” at the sports book of the Wynn Las Vegas casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
    
A police report released the week after the overdose said the person who called 911 believed the person who had overdosed had stopped breathing.
    
In the report, a police officer says he went to Thomas' home in Harrison, N.Y., and helped another officer who was administering oxygen to a person lying on the kitchen floor. Harrison is about 30 miles from midtown Manhattan.
    
Thomas has said it was his teenage daughter who required treatment, but Harrison Police Chief David Hall forcefully rebuked that and said he did not understand why “they're throwing her under the bus.”
    
Thomas won NBA titles as a player with the Detroit Pistons in 1989 and 1990, and an NCAA championship with Indiana in 1981. He joined the Knicks as the team president in 2003 and became coach in June 2006.
    
Last season, Thomas drew the wrath of fans in New York and was dismissed with a 56-108 record with the Knicks. Overall, he is 187-223 as an NBA coach, leading the Indiana Pacers to the playoffs in three straight years from 2000-03.
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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