Isiah Thomas Asked Clippers for Volunteer Work, Says Dunleavy

Stop ringing Thursday's alarm system, y'all, as Isiah Thomas will not be drawing a paycheck from the Los Angeles Clippers any time soon. In fact, reports Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times (via CN), Isiah approached the Clippers asking to work for them pro bono because his daughter will attend college in Southern California next season.

Current coach and general manager Mike Dunleavy listened to the (very!) generous offer, but declined.

And really -- basketball crimes committed and all -- it's a bit sad to read reports of Isiah feeling like this:

"Isiah came to us," Dunleavy said in a telephone interview Thursday morning. "I wasn't going to be a jerk and say, 'I can't talk to you.' But there's no position in the organization for him."

Thomas ran into [owner Donald] Sterling at a party and apparently pushed for work and asked whether he could sit next to the owner at an upcoming game, according to Dunleavy. That didn't happen.

Sure, plenty of other basketball fiends who haven't been found liable in multimillion-dollar harrassment lawsuits and haven't crippled a franchise's salary cap and haven't run entire leagues into the ground with poor management ... even those guys have to occasionally grovel for work.

But the speed in which Thomas went for hoops royalty to a man who can't get unpaid work from an 18-win team -- holy Hades. That has to be a fairly sobering visualization of your sullied aura.

I don't quite feel pity for Isiah, but we're getting close.