US News

ISIAH IGNORING N.Y.-BASED SON

The estranged love child of Isiah Thomas has moved to the city and is living less than a mile from his absentee dad’s home court, but father and son might as well be living on opposite sides of the planet.

Marc Dones, Thomas’ 21-year-old out-of-wedlock son, enrolled at The New School in Greenwich Village last month. He is living in a dorm just 18 blocks from Madison Square Garden, where Thomas works as coach and general manager of the Knicks.

Still, Dones told The Post last week his relationship with his father didn’t amount to much.

“He knows I’m here, but that’s all,” the writing major said as he smoked Marlboros with classmates in the bitter cold. “I haven’t been to a Knicks game, and don’t plan on it.”

Thomas reportedly had a two-month affair with Dones’ mother, Jenni. She filed a paternity suit against Thomas when she was six months pregnant in December 1985, just four months after the then-Pistons star married Lynn Kendall.

“She [Jenni] told me as soon as I was cognizant” that Thomas was the father, Dones told The Post last year. “I’ve learned to live with it.”

His mother never married, and he was raised in a two-story townhouse abutting a golf course in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Last year, The Post revealed that Thomas ignored countless phone calls from his son, even though the Knicks coach and general manager had agreed to provide him financial support.

In 1987, the NBA superstar agreed to pay $52,000 and $2,764.78 a month in child support, and a lump sum of $100,000 when Dones turned 18. “He hasn’t been a good dad to me. He’s never returned my calls – that’s just him,” the aspiring poet told a Post reporter last year.

Last week, Dones suggested The Post story was the catalyst for his father to finally pick up the phone.

“I have spoken to him” since the story ran last year, he said.

Dones, whose high cheekbones and long forehead resemble his dad’s, said his father played no role in his decision to come to New York City for college.

“When I got into The New School over a year ago, I knew my dad was here, obviously. But my father wasn’t a factor in my decision to either come or not come here.

“I love New York. . . and hope to live here after I graduate.”

But despite his moving from Michigan to the city, the distance between him and his father remains.

“I’m living my life, and I hope – just because who my father is – that I can still just live my life,” he said.

As for the tell-all book he was shopping around last year about his life on the sidelines of his father’s fame and fortune, Dones said his mind has shifted to his school books.

“Right now, I’m focusing on my classes,” he said. “I’m focusing on me.”

A Knicks spokesman said Thomas declined to comment.

elizabeth.wolff@nypost.com