NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES : Dantley’s Comments Put a Damper on Win

Apparently even winning doesn’t come without controversy when you’re a Detroit Piston.

Their point guard, with the biblical name and angelic face, suddenly was being fitted for a championship ring and a villain’s outfit at the same time.

Sunday afternoon, when the Pistons moved within one win of a Motor City victory parade, the clock was turned back to Feb. 15.

Adrian Dantley, traded that day to Dallas in a deal that brought Mark Aguirre to Detroit, was talking again about being hurt, and Thomas, one of Aguirre’s closest friends, was cast again as the bad guy. That isn’t a label the Pistons normally shy away from, but this was different.

Dantley, appearing at halftime on CBS, never mentioned Thomas by name, but the implication was clear when he said that everyone knows who orchestrated the trade, that he feels cheated for not being with the Pistons in their moment of glory.

Would this be dismissed as a small matter, even sour grapes, on the day the Pistons beat the Lakers, 114-110, at the Forum to take a 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals?

Apparently not by Isiah Lord Thomas III.

“Tears came to my eyes,” said Thomas, who learned of Dantley’s comments almost immediately after the game. “It was like, damn, here we go again.

“It’s like, even when things go right. . . . (He paused). I don’t know.”

His voice trailed off. Indeed, this was a day of many emotions for Thomas, even before he stepped off the court. The final minutes of Game 3 took care of that.

He started by tying the score, 96-96, on a 17-foot straight-away jumper, and the Pistons never trailed again. Thomas had six more points down the stretch, en route to 26, giving him an average of 23.7 in the first three games of the series. Three of his team-high eight assists also came in the final 6:11, which included a couple of good defensive plays, too.

But there was a downside, such as his bad pass with the Pistons protecting a 103-102 lead, and his foul on Laker guard David Rivers with 13 seconds left and Detroit ahead by five. Rivers made both free throws, cutting the Lakers’ deficit to 113-110 and giving them a chance to send the game into overtime with a three-point basket.

“Nobody ever said it would be easy trying to win an NBA championship,” Thomas said.

But nobody ever said anything about a former teammate criticizing a player when the team was supposed to be closing in on its finest hour, either.

Dantley’s charges caught the Pistons off guard, primarily because of the timing. Aguirre didn’t hear of them until some 30 minutes after the game, and he sort of laughed off the notion that it was Thomas who engineered the trade.

“I can’t believe he said that,” Aguirre said of Dantley. “There had to be something wrong for them (the Pistons) to trade him. That’s the bottom line.”

Thomas, however, didn’t toss aside the comments as easily. After the game, all he knew was that he would appear on post-game show with Tony Hernandez of Channel 2, the local CBS affiliate.

But Brent Musburger, the CBS sportscaster who did the live interview with Dantley, who was home in Washington, D.C., came by and asked for a moment alone with Thomas. As soon as Hernandez finished with Thomas, Musburger came in. The two spoke quietly off the air, and Thomas seemed to be somewhat bothered, looking at the ground and occasionally shaking his head.

After leaving the room, Musburger said he didn’t mention Dantley’s comments to Thomas.

“No, we were just talking, that’s it,” Musburger said.

Thomas, however, said it was Musburger who gave him the news about Dantley’s jabs. And then Thomas defended himself for the umpteenth time.

“Bill Davidson is the owner of the team, Jack McCloskey is the general manager, and Chuck Daly is the coach,” Thomas said. “And Daly has two assistant coaches. It’s their jobs to decide who is (on) the team, not mine.”

No doubt Thomas hoped the words would carry to Washington, just as his actions on the court have carried to Detroit.

It’s a good thing no one ever told him winning an NBA championship would be easy.