Isiah Thomas is once again playing the role of Kanye West to Michael Jordan’s Pete Davidson.
The retired NBA legend Thomas guested this week on the “Point Forward” podcast with Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner and had more salty remarks about his former rival Jordan. In particular, Thomas took exception to the narrative that Jordan went through the best talent in the NBA.
“When I came home ’88, ’89, ’90, I was celebrated in my community,” said Thomas. “I came home as a champion. Chicago hadn’t won yet. As a matter of fact, we was beating them. Consistently. Like, really consistently. As a matter of fact, they was still finishing fourth and fifth in the division. So this whole narrative about, ‘Jordan went through [Larry] Bird, he went through Magic [Johnson], he went through Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar].’ Nooooo. Timeout. That’s my story!
“That ain’t Jordan’s story,” Thomas went on. “Jordan didn’t go through Magic, Kareem, Bird, if I remember correctly. Jordan beat, he beat us [the Bad Boys Detroit Pistons] in ’91 at the end, and then he beat [Charles] Barkley, Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing. These were the people he beat. He didn’t beat Magic, Bird, and Kareem. But y’all been sold this story, ‘Oh, he was in the ’80s getting down.’ No, no, no, no, no.”
Thomas actually got a few things wrong here. For one, Jordan actually did defeat Johnson in the 1991 NBA Finals. Abdul-Jabbar, who was drafted 15 years before Jordan was, is not really seen as Jordan’s contemporary either, so that sounds more like a straw man argument. Meanwhile, it is true that Jordan never beat Bird’s Boston Celtics in the playoffs. But that was one of the formative matchups that set the trajectory for the rest of Jordan’s career, and he also found a way to shine in them by, for example, scoring 63 points at Boston Garden in 1986.
Regardless, Thomas just comes across as bitter here. He still clearly cannot stand Jordan, despite it now being over three decades since the two battled in the NBA. In recent years, Thomas has also relished every opportunity he has gotten to take petty shots at Jordan in the media.
H/T NBA Reddit
Photo: February 15, 2020; Chicago, Illinois, USA; NBA former player Isiah Thomas during NBA All Star Saturday Night at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
