(FranchisePick.Com)  The last kernels of Isiah Thomas’s authority were swept  away Friday afternoon when Donnie Walsh fired Thomas as coach of the NY Knicks. 

Thomas will remain with the team as a “personal adviser to Walsh, but with no title and no authority.”

Said Newsday’s Isiah Thomas hails Knicks’ next king:

Isiah Thomas moonlights as a popcorn salesman, so when the Knicks’ lame-duck coach says that he is willing to accept any position within the organization, he should be careful of what he asks for.

“Whatever role, my job is to work with Donnie (Walsh),” the part-owner of the Dale and Thomas Popcorn

This newsday article Good, bad and ugly of Isiah era cites the addition of Dale & Thomas Popcorn to Madison Square Garden as one of Thomas’ top three accomplishments:

The Garden started selling the very tasty “Dale & Thomas Popcorn,” which he co-owns, and was a tremendous improvement over the previous brand.

Now that things haven’t worked out with the NY Knicks franchise, maybe Isiah can concentrate on getting things really popping with the Dale & Thomas Popcorn franchise

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

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(FranchisePick.Com) Dale & Thomas Popcorn, the NY-based gourmet popcorn franchise company partially owned by and partially named for NBA great Isiah Thomas has announced that it will commence its franchise program in 2008.

Please disregard all previous stories that Dale & Thomas Popcorn had commenced franchising in 2006.

Or 2007.

Here’s what’s poppening, according to a release from Dale & Thomas’ PR firm:
Dale and Thomas Popcorn Commences Franchising Program in 2008
ENGLEWOOD, N.J., Feb. 25 — Dale and Thomas Popcorn announced today that it is launching a new and innovative franchise program in select areas of the Northeast. This move signals a new phase of expansion for Dale and Thomas to further share its chef crafted, gourmet popcorn with its friends and loyal customers throughout the country. Through its network of company owned and operated popcorn centers, and after testing multiple formats, Dale and Thomas has quickly built the country’s leading brand of gourmet popcorn. Led by industry veterans from both the food and retail industry, and backed by well known investment firms Goldman Sachs and Sun Capital Partners, Dale and Thomas has developed a formula for easily duplicating the experience while maintaining the highest quality popcorn and commitment to customer service.

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To facilitate the expansion of Dale and Thomas centers, the company has secured a relationship with Northboro Builders Inc., to design and build these new Dale and Thomas Popcorn centers. Northboro’s stellar reputation and experience in the franchise industry, along with its history of delivering excellence and simplicity in “turnkey” design and building services, ensures the success of look and feel of each Dale and Thomas location.

“We are enthusiastic and eager to launch our new franchise program,” says Terry Pritikin, Chief Retail Officer, of Dale and Thomas Popcorn. “Since opening our Times Square location three years ago, we’ve learned a great deal about our stores, our products, and our customers, not only through evaluating the service and merchandise in Dale and Thomas company owned stores, but through our relationship with our two existing franchise locations. We have taken the best from our research and have created an exciting new paradigm of franchising, with our ready-to-pop Franchise program.”

Dale and Thomas will be taking franchise applications immediately and has planned rollouts of the new centers beginning in mid 2008.

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About Dale and Thomas

Dale and Thomas is a privately held company, which manufactures America’s first line of chef crafted, gourmet popcorn products. The Englewood, New Jersey based snack food company sells through wholesale, retail, and direct channels. Dale and Thomas also has a wholesale line: Popcorn, Indiana(TM), a premium kettle corn line, sold at supermarkets, club stores and gourmet boutiques throughout the country. The company has also achieved a high level of recognition as it was selected by Oprah Magazine as one of her favorite things. The company’s Chef Ed has appeared on the Today Show and The View, as well as other national television appearances. The company has also been featured on the CBS Early Show and the Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on CNBC. Currently there are eight Dale and Thomas company retail stores and two franchise locations, located in New York City, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Florida, Michigan, and Massachusetts. Dale and Thomas Popcorn is also available at www.daleandthomas.com and 1800-POPCORN.

SOURCE Dale and Thomas Popcorn

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ISIAH THOMAS’ POPCORN FRANCHISE? LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW.

(FranchisePick) Popcorn is the world’s purest and most wondrous snack. And October, National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, is the special time we set aside to ponder and appreciate nature’s most sacred and magical food. For snack food purists, it is a holy time.

Isiah Thomas knows well the emotional power of popcorn. He grew up hungry, the youngest in a poor family in a Chicago ghetto. Some of his fondest memories from those days involve sitting with my family around a huge bowl of popcorn. The lessons that Isiah’s mother (a legend in her own right) imparted over a bowl of popcorn helped Isiah reach his dreams of earning a college degree, and building a life of athletic and personal achievement. Popcorn-powered Isiah Thomas went on to become one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players of All-Time, a 12-time NBA All-Star and member of the Hall-of-Fame, Head Coach of the Indiana Pacers, President of the New York Knicks and a bestselling author.

Isiah Thomas: The Prince of Popcorn. As a way of giving back, Isiah Thomas called up The Popcorn Board one day and offered to join their board and be their spokesman… for free. Years later, when he fell in love with the popcorn of a new popcorn franchise company called Popcorn, Indiana, he became an investor in the start-up operation. The owners changed the name to Dale & Thomas Popcorn to honor their new partner.

Sadly, not everyone in the popcorn industry is as pure as popcorn. It appears that a scheming sports promoter and a couple of nobody popcorn wannabes have teamed up to try to exploit the recent controversy and personal attacks upon the true Prince of Popcorn, Isiah Thomas. It seems that they can’t buy publicity for their uninspired brand, so they must make a crass attempt at stealing a few headlines by attacking a man who earned his fame through hard work and personal excellence.

T.T. Buds Popcorn: As Uninspired as it is Unknown I’m referring to a sad little popcorn company called T.T. Buds Popcorn, owned by Tom Sneed (not the golfer) and Tim Dalton (not the actor) and their hired henchman Jim Delaney of Activate Sports & Entertainment (a company that’s saving up to someday have a website of its own). T.T. Buds Popcorn has set up a separate website in a lame and transparent attempt to promote themselves at Isiah Thomas’ expense. They have launched a pathetic campaign to try to get The Popcorn Board to fire Thomas as the industry spokeman and to install themselves in his place.  Read about it here:

T.T. Bud’s Popcorn Launches Pathetic Campaign To Succeed Isiah Thomas as Official Popcorn Industry Spokesperson

I’m sure TPB will jump at the chance to replace an internationally reknowned basketball hall of fame legend with two nobodies named, cutely, Tim & Tom… especially after they read the petition that contains a whopping 125 signatures… no doubt signed by down-in-the-dumps Red Sox fans who’d sign away their mothers for a handful of stale, tasteless T.T. popcorn.

Look what other losers are eager to jump on the Kick’m When They’re Down bandwagon:

Anti-Isiah Thomas Popcorn: Want Some?

Isiah’s Undercover Popcorn Empire

Rival Popcorn Toughs Want Isiah Ousted

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SUCH SLEAZY, OPPORTUNISTIC AND ULTIMATELY PATHETIC PUBLICITY STUNTS? SHOULD ISIAH THOMAS BE REINSTATED AS POPCORN INDUSTRY SPOKESPERSON, OR SHOULD T.T. BUD’S POPCORN BE BOYCOTTED, SANCTIONED AND BANNED FROM THE POPCORN INDUSTRY FOR VIOLATING THE SANCTITY OF NATIONAL POPCORN POPPIN’ MONTH?

SEND A MESSAGE. LEAVE A COMMENT. DON’T LET THEM WIN.

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(FranchisePick) From the Kick’m When They’re Down Dept.

Read FranchisePick.Com’s response to this sleazy publicity stunt here:

Isiah Thomas Target of Half-Popped Smear Campaign

Pathetic wannabe’s press release is theirs.

[Italicized comments] are ours.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thurs, October 4, 2007

MEDIA CONTACT: Jim Delaney, (617) 851-6011, jdelaney@activatesports.com

T.T. Bud’s Popcorn Launches Campaign To Succeed Isiah Thomas as Official Popcorn Industry Spokesperson

Burlington, MA (October 3, 2007) – The next great Boston-NY rivalry begins today. Sox-Yankees. Pats-Jets. Celtics-Knicks. Bruins-Rangers. And now, Tim & Tom vs. Popcorn King Isiah Thomas. [Wow. Wonder who'll win that battle of the titans.]

Tim and Tom, owners of New England-based T.T. Bud’s Popcorn [Get it? T.T.? Tim & Tom?], announced today the launch of a grass-roots campaign to succeed Isiah Thomas as a spokesperson for the popcorn industry. Thomas, a self-proclaimed fan [Is there a sanctioning body that proclaims fans officially?] of popcorn, has served in the past as an industry spokesman and ambassador for America’s favorite snack. Thomas is also the namesake and partner in the New Jersey-based chains Dale and Thomas Popcorn and Popcorn, Indiana.

“Popcorn is America’s wholesome snack,” said Tim Dalton, co-owner of T.T. Bud’s Popcorn, “With Isiah Thomas no longer serving as the face of the industry, T.T. Bud’s would like to take his place as a spokesperson for National Popcorn Poppin’ Month. Tom and I feel as though we would make great representatives of popcorn lovers everywhere.” [Yes, and opportunistic weasels should be the new industry mascots]

October is National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, and beginning on October 4, popcorn fans will be able to voice their opinions and support for Tim and Tom online at www.votettbuds.com. Visitors will also be able to sign an online petition that will be submitted to industry leaders. [Thank god T.T. is rallying citizens around one of the pressing issues of our time!]

About T.T. Bud’s Popcorn

Tom Sneed and Tim Dalton met in the winter of 1995 while working [as restroom attendants] for the Boston Red Sox. Eleven years later, the duo purchased Mom’s Popcorn, a sweet and salty blend of delicious popcorn created by a local mother from Dracut, MA. [They immediately dropped the wholesome "Mom's" name in favor of their own initials, and added "Buds," drug dealer slang for "marijuana."] Since that time, T.T. Bud’s sweet and salty popcorn has been taking New England by storm, appearing in top retail outlets throughout the region and winning new fans at a blistering [Ouch!]rate. For more information or to place a custom order, [Or to leave a deservedly nasty comment] please visit www.ttbudspopcorn.com.

Got an opinion? Leave a Comment!

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