Game Recognizes Game: Unsportsmanlike Conduct

If Magic Johnson truly believes any of the the things he's written and said about Isiah Thomas over the last few months, he may have just succeeded in turning him into the very man he insists he's never been.

He's managed to transform Zeke into the bigger man, turned him into a somewhat sympathetic figure.

Talk about a fastbreak. Magic went on the offensive as we've never seen him before in his new novel When the Game Was Ours, charging that Thomas spread rumors he was either gay or bisexual after he tested positive for HIV and was forced to retire from the league at just age 32.

"Isiah kept questioning people about it," Magic said of his former NBA best friend and Detroit Pistons rival. "I couldn't believe that. The one guy I thought I could count on had all these doubts. It was like he kicked me in the stomach.''

But bad boy for life Thomas isn't about to back down. "I wish he would have had the courage to say this stuff to me face to face, as opposed to writing it in some damn book to sell and he can make money off it,'' he said.

Fellas, what happened to brothers goin' work it out? Me and my best friend? Magic has to be viewed as the heavy here because, as Thomas contends, he could have reached out to him first, expressed what his beef was before going all public. Friendships of more than a decade, no matter how real they may seem in retrospect, deserve as much.

Magic, Zeke, you guys are two of the sports worlds greatest heroes. Play your positions. --Glenn Minnis