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Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson: On why there was so much friction is between Mike D’Antoni and other players around the league… Tim Thomas: Oh I don’t know… I mean, I had a great relationship with him and I just think with my game and my skill set I could fit in anywhere, right? So many other guys that you might be talking about might’ve had trouble based off of their skill set and not being able to flourish in that type of offense but, with his offense if you could handle the ball, shoot the ball and run the floor? You should be fine, right? You should be fine. But I don’t know. I just had a great relationship with most of my coaches. The only one that I had a headache with was Larry Brown and come to find out later, he just never really liked rookies, you know? So that was basically the problem with myself and Larry Hughes not being able to help Allen Iverson out in Philly.
Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson: On if it was difficult playing against Scottie Pippen because of the comparisons early on… Tim Thomas: Naw! It was a thrill for me because you gotta remember, I cracked the league at 20 going on 21 and Scottie would always tell me, “You can’t hang out or nothing with me until you’re of age!” Right? So even having the opportunity to play that game against him was everything, you know?We were one of the teams that beat them when they were the 72-10 Bulls that year in Philly so that was a thrill. It was just like going up against your big brother, you know what I mean? There’s no fear even though Mike was talkin’ crazy and trying to get Pip to go crazy, but it was a great time for me to have that opportunity to compete against him and share the same floor with him and Mike each and every time we had that opportunity.
Moussa Diabaté: “Over the years, I’ll say a lot of Bam Adebayo, Pascal Siakam, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Kevin Garnett. Those are four players that I’ve really looked up to. I watch a little bit of everyone. Tim Thomas, I don’t know if you know him, but I watch a little bit of him. Serge Ibaka, I watch him from back when he was in OKC; that’s another big one. Just players like that – all-around big 4s and centers who are able to move their feet, guard on the perimeter, be versatile and make a two-way impact.”
Corey Benjamin: “I had Arn Tellem as an agent and Arn represented a lot of star players. The Bulls were trying to sign free agents. I hosted Tracy McGrady, Tim Thomas and Jermaine O’Neal when we brought them in. I was there personally for those [meetings] because we were all represented by the same agent (Arn). I remember Jerry Krause told me, ‘If you can get them to sign, I’ll renew your contract.’ I don’t remember Tim Duncan coming in, but I know we wanted Duncan. But we weren’t offering them the money that other teams were offering. I remember Tracy and Jermaine telling me, ‘They’re offering me peanuts.’ They weren’t trying to max these guys out; they were trying to give these guys smaller contracts.”
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This week, 50 Cent has been on Instagram talking about how he’s setting up a fight between Soulja Boy and Chris Brown that Floyd Mayweather’s company is going to promote (you can read a timeline of the Soulja Boy-Chris Brown beef at Entertain This!). On Friday, 50 Cent announced that there’s a card now, and he said that former NBA players Kenyon Martin and Tim Thomas will be on it.
Ramona Shelburne: Tim Thomas told me and @Lisa Dillman the ultimate "Clipper Curse" story .. Was in his hotel room and mirror just fell off the wall. Just fell. Ramona Shelburne: Nothing jarred the mirror. No doors slammed. It just fell and broke. Tim said he was totally freaked out. #cursewasreal
Tim Thomas was waived Tuesday by the Dallas Mavericks, but says he isn’t retiring from the NBA and hopes to be back for the 2011-12 season. “I’m definitely planning on being back next year,” Thomas, a Paterson, N.J. native who spent one year at Villanova, said Wednesday by phone. “The situation is that my wife [Tricia] has a few things that she has to take care of. Just the timing was bad. I don’t want people to think she’s on her deathbed or anything like that. She had some things to take care of and she just wanted me to be home [in Los Angeles] when she had to go through them.”
Tim Thomas’ time as a Maverick is over, officially, after he was waived this afternoon. It’s a sad situation. Thomas is a good dude and he could help the Mavericks. But his family situation demands that he put his basketball career to rest. He’s likely to retire, from what I’m hearing.
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Tim Thomas' time as a Maverick is over, officially, after he was waived this afternoon. It's a sad situation. Thomas is a good dude and he could help the Mavericks. But his family situation demands that he put his basketball career to rest. He's likely to retire, from what I'm hearing.
Many NBA players lose sight of that during their careers, putting stardom atop their priority list. That's not the case for Tim Thomas, who has decided to walk away from the game to care for his ailing wife (undisclosed illness) and three daughters. "Playing the game of basketball is what I love to do, but it's really time-consuming," Thomas said. "Being a husband and a father is really my first job. I'm not saying that I'm done, but if this is it for me then so be it."
"I was eager to get back to Dallas, knowing what I can do and that they have what it takes (to win a championship)... They [the Mavericks] were loyal enough to reach out to me and say that they wanted me back," Thomas said.
Because of Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and the organization's loyalty to the Thomas family during this tough time, Thomas wanted to make sure that he did not leave the team once again in the middle of the season, should their be a setback in his wife's condition. Instead, he chose to make an exit before the beginning of training camp. "I wanted to do it before training camp just so both sides didn't have that question mark, 'Is Tim gonna be here or not?' I had recent conversations with Cuban and it was all positive. He told me that he was praying for my family. The same goes for the fans, the coaching staff and my former teammates. I really appreciate it," Thomas explained.
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