Michael Jordan always had a deep enmity with Isiah Thomas. Only the origin of the whole thing was puzzled for a long time. Jordan now told his version. Not surprising: Thomas sees things very differently.
Isiah Thomas enjoyed a ruthless competition with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Thomas’ Pistons and the Bulls met in the playoffs three straight years (1988, 1989 and 1990).
The Pistons’ bad boys were an obstacle that Jordan was initially unable to overcome. The heated arguments between Isiah and Jordan eventually fueled a bitter rivalry between the two that continues to this day.
This rivalry reached its peak when the Bulls prevailed in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals and Isiah Thomas and his teammates left the field before time was up without a handshake or any congratulations for the Bulls.
A year later, Jordan is said to have helped prevent Isiah Thomas from being on the Dream Team at the 1992 Olympics.
Since then, Thomas has made numerous pithy remarks towards Jordan, and recently he quipped again, saying that LeBron James and Kareem-Abdul Jabbar are his greatest basketball players of all time.
In a recent article on Inquisitr, Michael Jordan revealed his perspective on the origins of the argument with Thomas. The article provided a flashback to the 1985 All-Star Weekend when Jordan claimed he was sidelined by Thomas.
“That was my first All-Star game. I stayed in my room most of the time because I didn’t know what to do,” Jordan said. “None of my teammates were there. I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where I wasn’t comfortable. The one time I walked out, I got on an elevator with Isiah Thomas to go downstairs to a meeting. That was the first time I met him. And I said, ‘Hello, how are you?’ That’s all I said.”
Jordan: “I was really intimidated because I didn’t know him and I didn’t want to get on his nerves. I didn’t want to seem like a newbie. I didn’t mean to be so stupid. So I was silent. I stayed in the corner. When I walked into the room for the meeting, I still didn’t say anything. After the weekend was over, I was told that I was arrogant and conceited and didn’t even want to approach Isiah in the elevator for giving him the cold shoulder. I claim that Isiah Thomas initiated all of this.”
Unsurprisingly, Thomas overheard the article, read it, and then called Jordan a liar.
“Stop lying, this story is neither factual nor accurate, tell the truth man. dr J., Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Sidney Moncrief and I didn’t single you out. If I remember correctly, I was injured almost the entire second half and Bird had a broken nose. Magic and Sampson dominated the game.”
The original of this post “Michael Jordan unpacks the greatest enmity, his rival can’t believe the story” comes from OpenCourt-Basketball.