Book Links Ex-Pistons To Gamblers

SP:ISIAH THOMAS and James Edwards lost big money shooting dice with gamblers connected to organized crime at the same time teammates were expressing concerns about point shaving, according to a book released today. -----------------------------------------------------------------

DETROIT - During the Detroit Pistons' 1989-90 championship season, two players were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars shooting dice with gamblers connected to organized crime at the same time some of their teammates were expressing concerns about point shaving, a book by three veteran sports journalists claims.

The two are identified in the book as Isiah Thomas and James Edwards.

Thomas, now executive vice president of the Toronto Raptors, declined an interview yesterday. But in the book, he is quoted as saying, "I've never, ever been involved in point shaving, betting on games."

Edwards, a former Washington Husky, also told the authors he never had been involved in point shaving.

The book, "Money Players," was released to bookstores today. An advance copy was obtained by the Detroit News.

Russ Granik, deputy commissioner of the NBA, told the Detroit News that an investigation earlier this year failed to find evidence for the point-shaving allegations.

Piston President Tom Wilson said he never had heard allegations of point shaving "until there was talk a couple months ago of this book coming out. I'll say this: Isiah Thomas is the most fiercely competitive person we ever had around here. No one gave more of his soul and heart to this team than he did."

The book, a detailed account of the marketing miracle that is the NBA, was conceived and worked on over a seven-year period by Armen Keteyian, a correspondent for ABC News in New York who specializes in sports investigations.

His co-authors are Harvey Araton, a sports columnist for The New York Times who has covered the NBA since 1980, and Martin F. Dardis, chief investigative reporter for Sports Illustrated for the past 16 years, after a 15-year career as chief investigator for one of the most active state attorney's offices in the country - Dade County, Fla.

In effect, the three journalists are putting their reputations on the line because all five sources who make the most serious allegations against Thomas are unidentified.

"We're prepared to defend every word in every chapter, and then some," Keteyian said. "Our sources are real - they live and breathe, the lawyers know who they are, and they are prepared to stand up and be counted if they have to."

Every effort was made to have the sources speak on the record, Keteyian said, and quotes were used only from those who agreed to tell their stories to the authors' lawyers.

Four of the sources were gamblers who said they witnessed craps games at the homes of Thomas' neighbor Emmet Denha and boxer Tommy Hearns, where $100 bills were carried in wads and $100,000 could be won or lost in half an hour.

Thomas and Edwards were in the thick of it, the authors were told. One gambler, identified as an attorney, told the authors he saw Thomas win what looked like $250,000 one night, but saw Thomas and Edwards take a large financial hit on another occasion.

Another said he watched Thomas wrap $56,000 in winnings in a bed sheet and leave a game at 5 a.m.

Also present at the tables, the authors were told, was a Runyonesque cast of Detroit's most notorious gamblers, known by sobriquets such as Skinny Eddie, the General, Stosh, Freddie the Saint and Airplane Bill.

The fifth source was described as a former Piston player who told Keteyian that he and his teammates discussed the possibility there might have been point shaving in two Piston games in late 1989.

On Dec. 15 of that year, a Friday, the Pistons played at Utah. Thomas played 38 minutes and scored 18 points but took an elbow in the head during the first half. Aboard a plane to Oakland, Calif., that night, he complained of dizziness and numbness in his legs.

Because the injury occurred on a weekend, the league office was not notified until well after the fact, the authors say - meaning Las Vegas oddsmakers had no way of knowing Thomas would not be in the lineup in Saturday night's game against Golden State. Detroit was favored by three but lost 104-92.

That night's official box score says Thomas was "not with team, concusion (sic)." It also shows that Edwards made one shot in five attempts and scored four points in 17 minutes.

Although it was reported Thomas had been taken to an Oakland hospital for a CT scan, the hospital told the authors it had no record of any such admission.

The second game in question, against Milwaukee, occurred Dec. 29 at home.

The 17-10 Pistons were 10-point Vegas favorites over the 13-13 Bucks. The score was tied through three quarters, but Milwaukee outscored Detroit 27-13 in the fourth and won 99-85.

Thomas played 34 minutes, the box score shows. He shot one for eight from the field, attempted no free throws, and finished with two points, two assists and four turnovers.

Edwards scored 17 points and had two rebounds and three assists.

Keteyian said the NBA did only a light investigation. That is the book's main theme - that the ultra-successful NBA shies away from serious investigation of potentially explosive problems.

"When you raise these kinds of documented concerns," Keteyian said, "eyewitness accounts of the most pivotal player on a world-championship team alleged to have lost $1 million, playing dice, to men with direct ties to a sports-betting ring tied to organized crime - you would think the NBA would be concerned."

The betting ring Keteyian referred to burst into the public spotlight on June 15, 1990. The Pistons were on their private jet, returning from a five-game pounding of Portland in the finals for their second consecutive championship.

A call to the plane revealed that Detroit television investigative reporter Vince Wade was going to break a story that checks written by Thomas had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury as part of a probe into a huge sports-gambling and money-laundering ring.

The checks had been cashed at a supermarket owned by Denha, Thomas' neighbor, close friend and the godfather of Thomas' child. Wade said Thomas had cashed approximately $100,000 in checks after high-stakes dice games at Denha's home.

Thomas said at a news conference that the checks had been relatively small - no more than $4,000 each - and provided him walking-around money. He said he had played in a few small, sociable dice games at Denha's house, where bets never exceeded $10 or $20.

One year later, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit released a 123-page indictment charging Denha with using his store to launder more than $6 million in illegal proceeds from a sports-betting ring run by Henry "The General" Hilf.

In a plea bargain, Denha was sentenced to six months in prison, restitution of $275,000 and a $62,000 fine. Hilf received 65 months in prison.

Bets at Hearns' invitation-only games were said to be just as large.

The book also deals with published accounts that claimed Thomas' teammate and friend since childhood, Mark Aguirre, started the entire investigation by reporting Thomas' gambling to Ned Timmons, a former FBI agent turned security consultant.

In an interview with the Detroit News, Timmons verified the book's version of events. He also said that he had learned the checks tendered by Thomas were far larger than the $4,000 maximum reported by Thomas and that Aguirre "was acting out of nothing but the deepest conviction and concern for the city, the basketball team, the players and Isiah."