NBA | Police tout "cover-up" in Isiah Thomas overdose

NEW YORK — A suburban police chief likened the conflicting accounts of an accidental overdose at Isiah Thomas' home to a "cover-up" and rebuked the former New York Knicks coach Saturday for saying it was his teenage daughter who required treatment.

"It wasn't his daughter," Harrison Police Chief David Hall told The Associated Press. "And why they're throwing her under the bus is beyond my ability to understand."

Authorities were called early Friday to Thomas' Westchester County home, where police said a 47-year-old man was taken to the hospital and treated for an overdose of sleeping pills. Several media outlets reported that police confirmed it was Thomas who went to the hospital.

But reached on his cellphone Friday, the 47-year-old NBA great told the New York Post he had not been treated for a sleeping pill overdose, and that it was 17-year-old daughter Lauren who had a medical issue.

It "wasn't an overdose," he told the newspaper. "My daughter is very down right now. None of us are OK."

Hall forcefully refuted Thomas' statement.

"My cops ... know the difference between a 47-year-old black male and a young black female," Hall said.

"These people should learn something from Richard Nixon — it's not the crime, it's the cover-up," he added.

Voice mails and text messages from the AP were left on Thomas' cellphone Saturday. Messages left earlier with Thomas' publicist and two of his attorneys were not returned.

Thomas' 20-year-old son, Joshua, lashed out at Hall's comments.

"Saying that someone is being thrown under the bus when you are talking about health issues is disrespectful," the Indiana University student wrote in a text to the New York Daily News.

Police were classifying the case as an "accidental drug overdose" on "a number" of prescription sleeping pills, Hall said.

The developments are the latest drama in what has been a difficult year for Thomas.

He was fired as the Knicks' coach April 18 after a season of dreadful basketball, a sexual harassment lawsuit and unending chants from fans demanding his dismissal. Still, he was retained by the organization as an adviser and consultant.

Notes

• Lacking depth in the frontcourt, Charlotte was depending on Sean May's healthy return from knee surgery to fill the gaping hole at power forward. But after watching an unfit May lumber through eight exhibition games collecting more fouls (22) than rebounds (21), coach Larry Brown believes the Bobcats will have to fill the position by committee.

"Right now I don't think he's ready to play at all," Brown said of May Saturday. "I think he's trying, but I don't think he's in the kind of shape to be able to compete on this level."

May has played in just 58 of a possible 246 games since he was selected 13th overall in the 2005 draft.

• Portland exercised fourth-year options on the contracts of LaMarcus Aldridge, guards Sergio Rodriguez and Brandon Roy, and the third-year option on Greg Oden. The moves keep all four players under contract through the 2009-10 season.

• New Orleans has exercised one-year team options on former first-round draft picks Hilton Armstrong and Julian Wright. The moves add a fourth season to Armstrong's contract and a third to Wright's.