Isiah Thomas still the apple of Detroit's eye

"Go on," the middle-aged man urged as he sat in the balcony of the Masonic Temple earlier this month.

The man — along with the rest of the audience that gathered to watch the first graduation class from Jalen Rose Leadership Academy — was listening intently to the message from one of Detroit's sports heroes, Isiah Thomas.

Thomas had just been introduced to raucous applause and "Bad Boys!" chants.

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Dressed immaculately and looking like he could still give a team an easy 10 points and five assists a game at the age of 54, Thomas congratulated the class for its hard work and achievement — every member of the class is either headed to college, the military or a trade school.

"You know what success is? Success is being the last man or last woman standing," Thomas said.

"Amen," members of the audience echoed.

When Thomas concluded, he received another ovation — a city showing one of its great sports heroes much love.

He shared the stage with Rose, former Detroit mayors Dave Bing and Dennis Archer. Hip-hop artist Big Sean, a Cass Tech graduate, made a surprise appearance and offered congratulations.

But the greatest response came for Thomas — more than 20 years after his Hall of Fame basketball career with the Pistons came to an end.

A month earlier, Thomas had received a different response.

The WNBA's New York Liberty and Madison Square Garden executive chairman James Dolan's decision to bring aboard Thomas as team president and part-owner stirred memories of a 2007 sexual harassment court case from when Thomas was coach of the New York Knicks.

The move was universally blasted in the nation's media center, but Thomas, no stranger to controversy in his 30-plus years as a public figure, claims no wrongdoing.

The Masonic Temple offered temporary refuge for Thomas and served as a reminder that Detroit always will be a place where he will be greeted with love and respect.

"It's always good to come to Detroit," Thomas told the Free Press the week after his Masonic appearance. "It's always good to walk through the airport and see your picture down at baggage claim. The love is mutual. It's a mutual lovefest, I guess, that's what we have. I love Detroit and the city has inspired me. Hopefully, I have inspired others. It's definitely been mutual."

Dealing with controversy

Thomas was coaching the Knicks in 2007 when he and his employer, Madison Square Garden, were hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit from a former MSG female executive.

Thomas denied involvement, but a jury found that MSG wrongly fired Anucha Browne Sanders for complaining about unwanted advances. Thomas was found to have contributed to a hostile work environment.

She was awarded $11.6 million in damages from MSG and Dolan, but case was later settled for $11.5 million.

Thomas didn't pay damages and he — along with MSG — disagreed with the jury's decision.

Browne released a statement to the New York Daily News through her attorney, Anne Vladeck, at the time of Thomas' WNBA hiring, which read in part: "The Garden's suggestion that the jury somehow exonerated Thomas by failing to award punitive damages against him is simply untrue. To the contrary, six of the seven jurors voted to assess punitive damages against Thomas personally. Had the defendants not settled after the verdict, Thomas would have had to face a retrial on that issue."

The Free Press asked Thomas if he expected the backlash and could he understand it when examining the situation?

"You knew there would be some discussion because there was so much inaccurate information out there and I think we definitely knew there would be a reaction," Thomas said. "But we also thought that once we got past the reaction you would start to have a conversation about the WNBA and women sports in America, and those conversations are definitely starting to happen around sport in terms of equality and inequality within the sport when you talk about gender pay, gender differences.

"Those conversations are starting to take hold and those conversations are starting to take place. We're happy those conversations are starting to take place within the sporting environment in terms of media coverage."

Dealing with Rose

Rose first met Thomas when he was a ninth-grader attending the Pistons great's basketball camp.

Pistons teammate Mark Aguirre was there, and Rose quickly found himself on the team opposing Thomas and Aguirre. Rose made a couple of shots against Aguirre, and he let him hear about it.

Aguirre, angered, caught the ball on the post with Rose on his hip. He faced up and swung his elbows as hard as he could — barely missing Rose's face.

"He tried to knock the teeth out of my mouth and break my jaw," Rose recalled with a laugh. "He was not playing."

Thomas' reaction? Gut-busting laughter.

"They had to stop the game because Isiah died laughing," Rose said.

Rose got to know Thomas when he was at Michigan and Thomas would bring along Pistons teammate Joe Dumars for pickup games. As a pro, Thomas was Rose's coach at Indiana and his general manager with the Knicks.

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He viewed Thomas as a mentor — a relationship that came in handy when Rose decided he wanted to open a charter school in his former northwest Detroit neighborhood.

Thomas told him not to be surprised if fund-raising was challenging.

"One of the things he stressed from the beginning is don't get discouraged," Rose said of his initial discussion about the school with Thomas. "As we were having a talk, we were probably on the phone for two hours, I noticed he kept coming back to that.

"I was like, 'What do you mean, don't get discouraged?' He was like, so many people have the opportunity to help you in one way and or donate to your cause, but they're going to look at you, smile at you and applaud what you're doing. Some will even play lip service to participating to help and they're not going to do it."

Thomas, without prompting for Rose, pledged $100,000 to sponsor a classroom at Jalen Rose Leadership Academy - which benefited the graduating seniors at the Masonic Temple ceremony. Thomas has delivered $80,000 and the last $20,000 is expected before the end of the year.

His support is emblematic of his philanthropic efforts in Detroit and his hometown of Chicago, where he has led charitable efforts to fund education, anti-violence initiatives and other causes.

"The best way I can describe him is as a true mentor," Rose said. "That's what Isiah means to me. A leader, a mentor. He's real. He's like that all of the time. If I call him or text him right now he's going to hit me right back."

Dealing with the Pistons

It has been more than a year since the Bad Boys reunion electrified the area.

All of the heroes of the 1989 and 1990 NBA champions — sans Dennis Rodman — were on hand for the charity gala at the downtown Westin Book Cadillac and the halftime ceremony at a Pistons game the next evening.

Thomas was seen interacting with Pistons and Palace Sports & Entertainment owner Tom Gores that weekend and shortly afterward there was talk that Thomas was poised to become a minority owner.

Fifteen months later, it is still talk.

Asked to describe his relationship with the Pistons, Thomas said: "I don't have a relationship with the team. You would have to speak to Gores and Mark Barnhill about that."

Barnhill, a partner with Platinum Equity, the private equity firm founded by Gores, said nothing has changed and that there is a road to minority ownership for Thomas and other former Pistons such as Bing, Bob Lanier and Vinnie Johnson.

"It is our ambition to bring all of those old legends back into the fold," Barnhill said. "We're certainly working with Dave Bing on his mentoring program. He's been a presence in Detroit. We've talked to Bob Lanier, who is working on the community-relations side at the league level, and we've discussed him joining us down here on a localized level.

"We certainly understood and appreciated the power of all those Bad Boys when we had that reunion last year and had a number of conversations with Isiah at that time. They were larger conversations about how we'd bring them into the fold."

Barnhill added that high-powered agent Arn Tellem, who recently was hired to serve as PS&E vice chairman, will be tasked with navigating the minority-ownership process. Minority-ownership stakes are subject to league approval.

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Dealing with Detroit

Thomas left the stage at the Masonic Temple a little early.

He had to make it up the road to the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham where he was one the guests of honor at Child Safe Michigan's Detroit Legends Ball. The event raised money for an organization that sponsors foster care and mentoring programs for abused children.

Thomas was honored alongside Bing, Denise Ilitch, Tommy Hearns and boxing promoter Jackie Kallen.

Thomas lit up the room and was the last guest of honor to leave after spending part of the evening dancing with his wife, Lynn.

Thomas charmed all those in attendance — which is par for the course whenever he is in Detroit, his adopted hometown.

"Anytime I go home to Chicago or come home to Detroit, those two cities are home," Thomas said. "I do a lot of work in the communities there. I always constantly go back and give to the grass roots, to the streets and just try to be true to who I am and try to continue to inspire the youth in both those cities that I know are having a very difficult time."

Contact Vince Ellis: vellis@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @vincent_ellis56.

Clarification: The article was updated to clarify what will eventually be a $100,000 donation from Isiah Thomas.

Photos: Best of the Bad Boys