Isiah Thomas is not a candidate to replace Joe Dumars, says Tom Gores spokesman

Mitch Lawrence of the Daily News cited anonymous league sources in reporting on Saturday that former Piston and Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas is the top candidate to replace his former teammate Joe Dumars as General Manager of the Detroit Pistons. [Hold your outrage...]

On Sunday, MLIVE shot that rumor down with a quote from one of Tom Gores' spokesmen:

A spokesman for Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores called a report that the team is wooing Isiah Thomas as its next general manager "absolutely false."

"He is not a candidate for any job with the Pistons," Mark Barnhill wrote about Thomas in an email to MLive.

Barnhill, a partner in Gores' Platinum Equity, wrote that he and Gores had dinner with Thomas a couple weeks ago in Los Angeles but the upcoming Bad Boys reunion "was the sole topic. Period."

Period.

My first reaction to Lawrence's post was literally laughter out loud - LLOL! Thomas' career after playing basketball has been quite the whirlwind. His failings at operating a team are far more substantial than Dumars', and Dumars never cost his organization in an expensive and embarrassing sexual harassment lawsuit. If Gores wants the Pistons to return to glory, he'll leave Thomas' Pistons legacy where it belongs -- retired with No. 11 in the rafters. Don't touch it. Don't even look at it.

Period.