Former NBA star Isiah Thomas is getting lots of good publicity for coaching his first year at Florida International University for free.

It is only fair that he donate his first year’s salary to the school, given his disastrous tenure running the New York Knicks. He was practically stealing his salary while messing up that job every way possible. He needs to make amends.

By the way, ESPN didn’t pull punches in this interview with Zeke. This gets uncomfortable:

Yikes! The whole Knicks Experience ended badly for Thomas. But, hey, he’s up for this new challenge in South Florida.

“I like rolling up my sleeves,” Thomas told reporters. “I like taking some from the bottom and building it to the top. There’s a lot of risk in that and there is also a lot of reward in that. But that’s how I grew up. I want to take FIU to the next level and I know it’s going to take a lot of hard work, but I’m willing to pay the price to do that.”

Hopefully he’ll get a handle on the NCAA salary cap. He won’t get to load up on seven- and eight-digit salaries as he did in the Big Apple.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering if Cardinal Nation will ever see Brad Thompson again:

• Will Tony La Russa ever call on Brendan Ryan to hit with the bases loaded again?
• What’s with the Whiteyball all of a sudden? Who could have expected Yadier Molina to steal a base in one game and Joel Pineiro to steal a base in the next?
• Had the Cardinals acquired Matt Holliday, would he, too, sit out every third game?

REMEMBERING YOUR PRIORITIES

Good fans don’t flirt with the enemy camp.

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

E.J. Hradek, ESPN.com: “Blues veteran Keith Tkachuk has grabbed the opening-night lead when it comes to the most rugged stubble. The Massachusetts native is going with the Mr. Clean shaved-head look, and he pulls it off just fine. In the early stages of his playoff growth, however, he showed off some serious salt-and-pepper stubble during an in-between periods TV interview. If he rubs his face against a Canucks defenseman, he could get a four-minute minor for drawing blood!”

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “Draft Web site NFLDraftBible.com has reported that UFlorida wide receiver  Percy Harvin tested positive for marijuana at the NFL Combine. If this is indeed true, I guess that would explain Harvin’s almost embarrassingly low score of 12 on the NFL’s Wonderlic intelligence test. Let’s face it, you’d have to be pretty dumb to smoke pot when you know millions of dollars could be riding on your mandatory drug test at the combine.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Some NFL teams reportedly set up fake Facebook pages offering liaisons with women to entice potential players in order to gauge their character. So here’s a warning, draftees: Beware arranging to hook up with that woman who looks a bit like Bill Parcells in heels and a blond wig.”

TOO MUCH INFORMATION

Thanks to the Internet, sports fans get bonus coverage — including lots of stuff that might not make their morning newspaper.

THE NEXT GREAT SPORTS TALK STAR?

Tipsheet’s old Baltimore friend, “Nasty” Nestor Aparacio, went looking for fresh talent for his Internet sports talk empire. Here was just one of the memorable auditions:

And boom goes the dynamite! This reminds Tipsheet of a solo Saturday shift it once pulled years ago at KFNS. One man, alone in a studio, talking nonsense into space, struggling to reach the next commercial break alive. Not good.

WRAP PLAYERS IN BUBBLE WRAP

Because bad things happen to them away from competition.

MEGAPHONE

“Like anyone who has a situation that is uncertain, as any husband and father would do, you address it with your wife and you address it with your kids. And you talk about the ‘what if.’ But does that mean that at any time that I thought that I wasn’t going to be here? I mean you just have to deal with . . . When you’re around a long time in this business, what you learn is you have to deal with the negatives. You just have to have a plan just in case they end up happening.”

Hapless Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, telling ESPN.com that he pondered retirement last year.