Isiah Thomas
Teams
Detroit Pistons - 1981-94
Playoffs
Appearances - 9 (1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992)
Conference Finals - 5 (1987,1988,1989,1990,1991)
NBA Finals - 3 (1988,1989,1990)
Championships - 2 (1989,1990)
Awards and Honors
Rookie of the Year - 1982
Finals MVP - 1 (1989,1990)
All-NBA First Team - 3 (1984,1985,1986,1987)
All-NBA Second Team - 2 (1983,1987,1988)
All-NBA Third Team - 0 (1983,1989,1990)
Hall of Fame - 2000
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Assists Per Game - #5
Total Assists - #9
Total Steals - #18
Steals Per Game - #24
Total Points - #69
Points Per Game - #89
League Leads
Total Assists (#1-1984,1985, #2-1986, #4-1987, #5-1983,1990)
Assists Per Game (#1-1985, #2-1984,1986, #3-1987)
Total Steals (#2-1983,1984, #5-1985)
Steals Per Game (#2-1984, #4-1983)
Three-Point Percentage (#2-1983)
Three Pointers Made (#4-1983)
After leading Indiana to a national championship and winning the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player award as a sophomore while averaging 16.0 points and 5.8 assists per game, Isiah Thomas was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the #2 overall pick in the draft.
Thomas averaged 17.0 points, 7.8 assists, and 2.1 steals as a rookie and was named to the All-Rookie First Team, but somehow didn't receive a single vote for Rookie of the Year, which went to Buck Williams, who averaged 15.5 points and 12.3 rebounds. He was selected as a starter in the All-Star Game, a rarity for a rookie.
Thomas had his highest-scoring season in year 2, when he put in 22.9 points per game to go with his 7.8 assists and 2.5 steals per game. Detroit still wasn't good enough to make the playoffs, but that would change the next year, and they would make it to the postseason in each of the next 9 seasons.
The next year Thomas made the All-NBA First Team and led the league in total assists, though his average came in second, and led the Pistons to the playoffs. In the deciding Game 5 of the first round, he scored 16 points in the final 94 seconds of regulation to force the game into overtime, but they ended up falling short in the extra period.
In 1984-85 Thomas had his best individual season by far. He led the league in assists with 13.9 per game, while also scoring 21.2 points and grabbing 2.3 steals per game. The Pistons were able to make it one step farther in the playoffs, falling to the Celtics in the second round.
Thomas averaged at least 20 points and 10 assists in each of the next two seasons as well, making it 4 in a row, and he helped the Pistons reach the Conference Finals, the farthest the Pistons had made it in the playoffs since arriving in Detroit. They fell to the Celtics again, but they were making progress.
Thomas' personal statistics dipped just slightly over the next several seasons, but those were the most successful seasons of his career. In 1988 he led the Pistons to the NBA Finals, where they faced the Lakers, and after taking a 3-2 lead, Thomas sprained his ankle in Game 6, but still managed to score 25 points in the third quarter alone, setting the Finals record for a quarter. Unfortunately, the Lakers won that game and the next to take the series in 7 games.
The following season, Detroit had the best record in the NBA, and after knocking off Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the Conference Finals, they got a rematch with LA in the Finals, but this time they swept the defending champs. Thomas averaged 21.3 points and 7.3 assists in the Finals, but the Finals MVP went to Joe Dumars, who averaged 27.3 points in the Finals.
The next season was more of the same, with Detroit taking the #1 seed, then knocking off Jordan and the Bulls in the Conference Finals again, before coming home with another championship, this time over Clyde Drexler and the Trail Blazers, with Thomas winning the Finals MVP with averages of 27.6 points, 7.0 assists, and 5.2 rebounds.
Thomas missed 33 games the next season with a wrist injury, but the Pistons were still a strong team, and they reached the Conference Finals for the 5th year in a row, but this time they weren't as strong as Chicago, who swept the 2-time defending champs to end their quest for a threepeat.
Thomas and the Pistons started to slowly decline from that point, not winning another playoff series in his career, and after he tore his Achilles tendon late in the 1994 season, he decided that the time had come to retire after 13 seasons.
Thomas had a quick rise to the top tier of players in the league, and had 4 straight seasons of finishing in the top 3 in assists, including one outright assists title. His team got better as he took a slight step back statistically over the next several years, but he was still the best player on the Pistons through both of their title runs and their other 3 deep playoff runs during that time, and he belongs here near the top of the list of the best players in history.
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