A Disappointing End to Thomas’ Career

It was not the NBA farewell Isiah Thomas had planned. But his exit--hobbling off the court with a torn Achilles’ tendon--seemed to symbolize the Detroit Pistons’ dismal 1993-94 season.

Thomas, one of the league’s all-time great guards, was forced to end his career in what was his final home game, a 132-104 loss Tuesday night to the Orlando Magic.

Although disappointed, Thomas said: “Me, as an athlete and a basketball player, when it’s all said and done, I wanted to leave everything on the court.”

But the man who led the Pistons to NBA championships in 1989 and ‘90, could not overcome the mounting injuries this season. After landing badly from a jump in the third quarter, Thomas said: “It felt like I got shot with a cannon.”

He suffered a torn right tendon and had surgery Wednesday evening. The injury will keep him out of this summer’s world championships in Toronto.

“He’s not going to be able to play at all in that,” team physician Benjamin Paolucci said. “As a matter of fact, if he were planning on playing next year, he would have missed the first part of the season.”

Said Piston guard Joe Dumars: “That’s an absolutely terrible way to end it.”

Thomas left Indiana at 19 to sign with the Pistons, and was the second pick overall of the 1981 draft. He became the Pistons’ all-time scoring leader in 1991 and this season surpassed the 18,000-point mark.

But this season, his 32-year-old body could not hold up. He missed 20 games because of injuries, including a hyper-extended knee, a broken rib, a broken hand, a strained arch, a calf injury and a cut left hand.

Still, in March, Thomas joined Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson and John Stockton as the only NBA players to record 9,000 career assists.

“I look back at what I was able to accomplish, what I got out of my body, and it far exceeded anything I could have envisioned,” Thomas said. “I can comfortably say I didn’t waste any talent.”