Thomas will make his debut as a studio analyst for NBA TV on Friday, during a pregame show at 7 p.m. He will not be a regular contributor but will make several appearances a month on the network and will contribute to NBA.com, according to a statement.
The hiring brings an informal end to Thomas’s four-and-a-half-year absence from the N.B.A. after his dismissal by the Knicks in 2008. It is the longest he has been out of the league since he was drafted in 1981.
From 1994, when he retired as a player, through 2008, Thomas stayed attached to the N.B.A. as either a team executive, a coach or a television commentator, with a two-year break to run the Continental Basketball Association from 1998 to 2000.
The Knicks fired Thomas as president and coach in the spring of 2008 after a disastrous four-and-a-half-year tenure. The owner, James L. Dolan, tried to rehire Thomas as a consultant in 2010, but the N.B.A. nullified the deal because Thomas was coaching at Florida International University. The university fired him in April.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/sports/basketball/nba-tv-hires-isiah-thomas-as-studio-analyst.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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