Isiah Thomas resigned as Exec VP & GM of the Raptors
yesterday, faxing a one-page letter to team Owner Allan
Slaight, according to Doug Smith of the TORONTO STAR. The
resignation "capped a week of escalating tensions that
revealed a poisonous relationship between the partners."
Thomas will sell his share of 9% of the team to Slaight.
Assistant GM & VP/Legal Affairs Glen Grunwald has been named
the new GM. Thomas is "expected" to hold a news conference
today. Smith adds that Thomas is still negotiating with NBC
"to become an on-air analyst," and that no announcement is
expected "until at least Monday" (TORONTO STAR, 11/21).
Thomas' contract was worth C$900,000 per year with 18 months
remaining on the deal (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 11/21).
DETAILS: Thomas said he differed with Slaight on the
team's arena situation as he pushed to have the Maple Leafs
part of the project. Thomas: "If they're not in the
building, you have to have enough money to wait three or
four years until there's a change in Maple Leafs ownership."
Thomas: "I ask Allan, 'Do we have enough money to last three
or four years?' And he says 'trust me.' I say, 'Show me,'
because the numbers I've seen ... don't add up. We're not
going to make it. If I'm going to keep putting money in the
tin (to finance the arena), I want to know what my
investment is here, where's the return?" Slaight said
Wednesday: "It's a quitter that leaves now. ... A winner
wouldn't walk away with the way things are going now. To
leave at 1-10 or whatever we are now, he would have
'quitter' branded on his forehead" (GLOBE & MAIL, 11/21).
REAX: In Toronto, Chris Young: "Has there ever been a
fall from grace so shockingly abrupt by one of the
sport/business world's bright young power brokers? ... The
Raptors will miss his savvy. They won't miss his
brinkmanship" (TORONTO STAR, 11/21). Also in Toronto, Neil
Campbell writes the team is "far better off" without Thomas.
Campbell: "They are better off because Thomas was and would
always be a disruptive influence. It's his way. He
manipulates, he uses, he plots, he creates an uncomfortable
environment. The Raptors' offices will be a happier place
without him" (GLOBE & MAIL, 11/21). But Craig Daniels
supports Thomas, writing, "I guess Thomas must be a bad
person even though I never once heard any of my colleagues
complain about their lack of access to Thomas, and even
though I never saw Thomas treat people, including the media,
with anything but respect. ... I guess [NBA Commissioner
David] Stern and the rest of the league didn't make the
wrong decision in 1993 about which group should own the
franchise. I guess constant confusion and turmoil are the
way the NBA likes its franchises run" (TORONTO SUN, 11/21).
