OPEN COURT: Following Zeke’s lead?

If there was any doubt before, let it be known that we’re in the midst of one of the most confusing eras in this country’s history.

For the last three-and-a-half years, I’ve attempted to use this column to make sense of the world through sports. Sometimes, it works. Other times, not so much.

In a way, this column’s existence runs parallel to its subject. Writing, like sports, is endlessly enjoyable and occasionally frustrating. You win some; you lose some. But as long as writers and athletes maintain the proper perspective, it never stops being interesting.

It’s just that today, my perspective is completely out of alignment. Up is down, right is left. I can’t believe I’m about to type the next sentence, but this is the world in which we live.

It’s about time we all started to follow Isiah Thomas’ lead.

That’s right, the same Isiah Thomas who destroyed the New York Knicks with his mind-boggling array of terrible front-office decisions and instigated the horrifying sexual harassment charges. The same Isiah Thomas who will forever be the go-to punchline for NBA front-office ineptitude. The same Isiah Thomas who ran the Indiana Pacers into the ground as head coach. The same Isiah Thomas who turned the Continental Basketball Association from a fan-friendly semi-professional league into a financial black hole.

Yes, that Isiah Thomas.

On Wednesday, Thomas was introduced as the new head coach for Florida International University. Of course, my friends and I made all of the typical wise-cracks that accompany such a move. Didn’t FIU watch the news? Hasn’t anyone at that University seen the Knicks play during the last five seasons?

Since new Knicks’ General Manager Donnie Walsh cut Thomas loose, he has kept a relatively low profile, except for allegedly campaigning for the Los Angeles Clippers’ GM job. He has been biding his time, looking for an opportunity to get back into the sport he loves.

Instead of taking another high-profile gig that would almost certainly lead to disaster, Thomas is going to fly under the radar — well, sort of — at a smaller school in the Sun Belt conference. Such a small school, in fact, that FIU President Modesto Madique introduced him as “Isiah Thompson.”

Well, then.

Look, I’ve had my fun with Zeke in this column, just like everyone who writes about sports. He’s been a remarkably easy target — almost too easy — and he never seemed to possess an ounce of self-awareness, even when the Knicks were crumbling and his sexual harassment trial kept becoming more and more absurd.

Rock bottom came during that bizarre sleeping pills incident.

It’s such a shame that all of his front-office failures and embarrassing tabloid exploits have overshadowed what was once a splendid NBA career.

He led the Detroit Pistons to back-to-back NBA titles during the most competitive era in league history and can make a case as one of the two or three best point guards ever to wear an NBA uniform. Even when he was throwing around awful contracts to the likes of Zack Randolph and making ill-advised Eddy Curry trades, Thomas was always a shrewd evaluator of college talent, having the foresight to draft quality players like Marcus Camby (during his Toronto tenure), David Lee, Wilson Chandler, Renaldo Balkman and Trevor Ariza (among others) at terrific value.

The optimist would say that Thomas’ eye for talent, his Hall-of-Fame pedigree, his two championship rings and his ability to connect with younger athletes will lead to success as a recruiter at FIU. And perhaps he was never meant to coach at the NBA level. Perhaps he can reach 18- to 22-year-old athletes and help them play to the best of their abilities.

Maybe Zeke has finally found his niche.

I’m not going to guarantee that Thomas becomes a successful college coach. Far from it. The fact that he continues to land work despite his glaring failures just astonishes me.

But his gesture during Wednesday’s news conference leads me to believe that Zeke may have finally learned from his many mistakes and finally has some perspective.

The Knicks still owe Thomas $12 million for the next two years (I know, I know...), giving Thomas the opportunity to turn down his first year’s salary at FIU to allow that institution to put that money back into its athletic department.

Think about that for a second. Could you imagine what would happen if every high-profile NCAA and professional coach did such a thing? Perhaps this nation’s struggling college system could finally rebound from these disastrous economic conditions without having to increase tuition or cut programs.

Is it possible that Isiah Thomas, of all people, is on the right track? Is it possible that we should be following his lead?

Strange times, indeed.

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747