| | Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- He beams that high-voltage smile more
often now, but the scars around his mouth and eyes betray another
side of Isiah Thomas.
|  | | The late Danny Biasone and the rest of the Hall of Famers -- from left, Morgan Wootten, C.M. Newton, Bob McAdoo, Pat Summitt and Isiah Thomas -- were inducted Friday. |
It's the side that earned him and his Detroit teammates the
"Bad Boys" nickname, made him fit right in with Dennis Rodman,
moved him to chomp Boston Celtic Robert Parish's hand in a fight
for the ball.
It is this inner fistfighter -- married to championship smarts
and skills -- that lifted the 6-foot-1 guard Friday into the
Basketball Hall of Fame beside the game's giants.
"Not that I wanted to be bigger, but I wanted them to be
smaller," he said with a stare before his induction. "Because if
we were all the same size, I would have killed them."
Thomas, who took over in July from Larry Bird as coach of the
Indiana Pacers, entered the Hall of Fame with high-scoring Bob
McAdoo and Tennessee women's coach Pat Summitt. Other new members
are Morgan Wootten, the winningest high school coach ever, of
DeMatha High in Hyattsville, Md.; Kentucky athletic director C.M.
Newton; and the late Syracuse Nationals founder Danny Biasone, who
introduced the 24-second clock.
Perhaps none of the Hall's 238 members, though, wanted to win
more than Thomas. He thought back Friday to growing up in a rough
Chicago neighborhood and eventually finding peace of mind when he
won on a basketball court. He said losing just about always made
him feel sick to his stomach.
"I can't say I was one of those guys who won every fight," he
said. "But I was in the fight."
And in 1989 and 1990, Thomas, Rodman, Vinnie Johnson, Joe Dumars
and Bill Laimbeer did win the biggest fights in their back-to-back
NBA championships.
"I've also had players who did not care," their former coach,
Chuck Daly, said Friday. "I'd rather have a challenging team."
As floor leader, Thomas injected intensity into their mugging
defense. But he could also leap, shoot, pass and steal with few
equals, averaging 19.2 points and 9.3 assists in his career. He
ranks fourth in NBA assists. A 12-time All-Star, he commanded a
spot on the NBA's list of 50 greatest players in 1996.
Even in college, Thomas wanted to win everything. He led Indiana
to its 1981 NCAA championship. To this day, he speaks warmly of
that team's recently fired coach, Bob Knight, who also isn't afraid
of a tussle.
With good height at 6-foot-9, McAdoo punished largely with
finesse and touch. Yet, as a boy playing in YMCA games, he was a
rebounder.
"I saw the scorers were getting all the attention," he
said Friday.
He later worked out his own style, almost hiding his face as his
arms went up for the shot. Los Angeles Laker Jerry West, McAdoo
remembers, once called it "the ugliest shot I have ever seen."
No matter: McAdoo turned it into one of the best and most
versatile jump shots ever by a big man. He led the NBA in scoring
from 1973-1974 through 1975-76, averaging more than 30 points in
each of the three seasons. He averaged 22.1 points and 9.4 rebounds
for his career. He played for seven NBA teams and helped the Lakers
win NBA championships in 1982 and 1985.
Jack Ramsay, who coached McAdoo when he played for the Buffalo
Braves, called McAdoo "a scoring machine."
"Bob McAdoo never met a shot he didn't like," Ramsay said at
Friday's ceremony at the Springfield Civic Center before about
1,600 former players and coaches, basketball officials and fans.
Summitt led the Lady Vols to six national championships in her
26 seasons at Tennessee. One of her teams went 39-0 record in its
unforgettable 1997-98 season. Summitt holds a 728-150 win-loss
record.
She coached the U.S. women at the Olympics when they won the
1984 gold medal.
But Friday, she said it felt like nothing else to join the Hall
of Fame: "I feel like a basketball angel in heaven."
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Isiah Thomas talks about being an outstanding member of the basketball community.
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Pat Summit comments on being inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame at a great time in her career.
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