If a course entitled “Front Office Management In Professional Sports” is offered at Cal Berkeley, keep an eye out for Isiah Thomas sitting at the head of the class.
The former Detroit Piston and 12-time NBA All-Star turned NBA executive with the New York Knicks is enrolled at Cal as a graduate student and is about 10 units short of finishing his master’s degree at the Cal school of education.
“First day of class. UC Berkeley. 10 credits away from my masters!”, Thomas tweeted on Wednesday as he returned to school.
It will actually be the second college campus Thomas has been associated with over the last five months after “Zeke” was dismissed back in April as head coach at Florida International University after three seasons.
The Basketball Hall of Fame point guard and coach (who can forget his time with the Indiana Pacers and eventually the New York Knicks) compiled a 26-65.
"When I was in Toronto, I was trying to buy a team and I left. When I was in Indiana, Larry Bird told me that he liked what I was doing but he was closer to Rick Carlisle. The whole thing in New York was crazy. This is the first time someone told me that I was being fired for basketball reasons,” Thomas said after being let go by FIU.
Thomas used the situation as a learning tool and even a chance to grow at the age of 51-years old.
"I've had my ups and downs," Thomas said when FIU originally hired him. "But don't expect me to just stay down, because that's not happening."
And now he’s receiving a whole new education as he completes his master’s degree at Cal, one that is surely to end by passing the test in front of him.
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