Thomas: Knight’s honesty rare

? The free-wheeling point guard from the city and the controlling coach who early in his career established himself as a bit of a tyrant seemed not the best of fits.

Isiah Thomas confirmed as much.

“My mother chose Indiana,” Thomas said with a laugh.

Thomas spoke publicly for the first time since the news broke Monday night that Bob Knight, Thomas’ coach at Indiana, had resigned from his current post at Texas Tech, ending a 42-year career that produced a Division I men’s basketball record 902 victories.

Thomas, one of the nation’s prized recruits coming out of St. Joseph’s High School in Westchester, Ill., said his mother, Mary, pushed him toward Bloomington, Ind. because Knight refused to guarantee anything other than an education. Not playing time, not championships, not any of the “perks” the NCAA has tried – sometimes in vain – to eliminate from the often seedy world of recruiting.

“He was one of only a few coaches who didn’t come in and try to bribe my mom,” Thomas said.