Tag: Dream Team

Charles Barkley shares his side of the story of Michael Jordan leaving Isiah Thomas off the Dream Team

Charles Barkley shares his side of the story of Michael Jordan leaving Isiah Thomas off the 1992 Dream Team as the decades-long rivalry continues.

After decades of wondering why one of the best point guards [autotag]Isiah Thomas[/autotag], was left off the 1992 Olympic men’s basketball team known as the ‘Dream Team’, we are finally getting more clarification.

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame player turned popular TV analysis Charles Barkley appeared on Pro Football Hall of Fame Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay to share details on why Thomas wasn’t on the team. Sharpe asked the dream team player the million-dollar question, and Barkley revealed his thoughts on the matter. 

Barkley alluded to [autotag]Michael Jordan[/autotag] being the reason Thomas was left off the team due to his desire not to play with the former Piston guard.

Barkley’s answer still leaves a lot of room for speculation, but there’s no denying the heated back-and-forth playoff series Jordan and Thomas had. Jordan even bulked up one summer after taking a “beating” by the Bad Boy Pistons, according to the “Last Dance Documentary“. 

Thomas and Jordan are still not on good terms, with the most recent banter between the two is Thomas asking for a public apology from the Tar Heel. Jordan has yet to apologize or respond, so there’s no saying if this rivalry will ever end.  

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Charles Barkley shares a legendary story about Michael Jordan

Charles Barkley shares a story about Michael Jordan from the 92 Dream team.

Another legendary story about Michael Jordan’s playing days has surfaced.

This story comes from NBA hall of famer, TNT personality Charles Barkley who played against and teamed up with Jordan in the 90s. Despite being tough opponents for one another, the two did share a friendship through golf.

Barkley appeared on a podcast where he opened up about a memorable moment from the 1992 Dream team that explains just how crazy Jordan is. Barkley explained how he, Jordan, David Robinson, and Chuck Daly played a round of golf before playing Puerto Rico that night. However, the story is not just about 18 holes; watch for yourself.

The most Jordan-like story explains how mentally focused he was during his dominating reign in the 90s, speaking to the last dance documentary on how he took certain words personally.

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In discussing his storied playing …

In discussing his storied playing career, the hosts ask Barkley about his time with the “Dream Team” at the 1992 Olympics. Specifically, how he reacted to coach Chuck Daly telling him that he was the second-best player on the team, behind Michael Jordan. “I said, ‘I agree with you, but I’m going to put an end to that shit next year’,” said Barkley, referring to his run with the Phoenix Suns. “I said, ‘we’re playing them in the finals and I’m going to bring it.’ When I got to Phoenix, I told them on the first day that we’re going to the finals and that I’m sick of everyone telling me that he’s better than me…We got there and they beat us. That was the first time I ever said in my life that there was someone who was better than me at basketball. In my whole life. I had Manute Bol and Shelton Jones, so I thought that those guys weren’t better than me, they just had more help.”

In February of ’92, just three months …

In February of ’92, just three months after announcing his retirement, Johnson cleared a bigger physical and psychological hurdle, playing for the Western Conference in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game in Orlando. That appearance was one of the first major counters to the concerns – and, frankly, the prejudices – that many people living with HIV had faced from others. There was Magic Johnson, HIV-positive, still doing what he’d done as well as anyone who’d ever played the game. But it had been a long and difficult road to get there. “There was a question if, after his announcement, forget about the All-Star Game,” Johnson’s longtime agent, Lon Rosen, said last week. “If he was going to be able to play in the Olympics, number one, was he going to be alive? Number two, was he going to be healthy? And number three, if he was healthy, would other teams play against him? If you recall, in 1991, some people didn’t want to be in the same room as him. It was COVID to another degree.”

Why was the decision made to really …

Why was the decision made to really elevate Steve Kerr especially with respect to the 1998 playoffs? He was always a role player. Meanwhile, Toni Kukoc kept them alive in Game 7 versus Indiana. Jason Hehir:We needed to find places within the doc to tell individual backstories. Toni’s was in Episode 5 when he faced the Dream Team. Steve’s was in Episode 9 when he hit his famous ’97 Finals shot. Hardcore NBA/Bulls fans couldn’t be our target audience, but unfortunately they’re our biggest critics because they wanted this largely to be about on-court events. We had to keep in mind that our audience is also the 20-year -old kid from France who barely knows what basketball even is. The amount of positive response we’ve gotten from countries that aren’t basetkball-crazy tells me we struck the right balance. I hope so, anyway.

ESPN’s recently aired documentary …

ESPN’s recently aired documentary series “The Last Dance,” chronicling Michael Jordan’s final championship season with the Chicago Bulls, rekindled interest in Jordan’s long-running feud with Isiah Thomas, including how the Pistons’ star was left off the 1992 Dream Team that won Olympic gold in Barcelona. Author Jack McCallum addressed the controversy in the most recent episode of his “The Dream Team Tapes” podcast series. McCallum said Jordan brought up the issue of Thomas himself in a 2011 interview. “When they called me and asked me to play — Rod Thorn called me. I said ‘Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team.’ He assured me. He said, ‘Chuck doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team,’” Jordan said on the recording that McCallum played during the podcast.

Michael Jordan admitted that he told Rod Thorn to keep Isiah Thomas off the Dream Team

He said something different in The Last Dance.

ESPN’s 10-part documentary series, The Last Dance, dedicated an episode to Michael Jordan’s experience with the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team — the first Dream Team.

And you may recall that when Jordan was specifically asked about Isiah Thomas’ omission from the Dream Team roster, Jordan said in the documentary via ESPN, “No matter how much I hate him, I respect his game. Now, it was insinuated that I was asking about him, but I never threw his name in there.”

Well, recently surfaced audio from a 2011 interview with sports reporter Jack McCallum told a far different story.

In the audio, which aired on the podcast, The Dream Team Tapes, Jordan admitted to telling USA selection committee member Rod Thorn that he wouldn’t play if Thomas was on the roster.

Jordan said:

“Rod Thorn called me, and I said, ‘Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team.'”

In his own interview with Golic & Wingo, Thorn said that Thomas’ name never came up in conversations with Jordan. Via ESPN:

“There was never anything in my conversation with [Jordan] that had to do with Isiah Thomas, period. He said, ‘I’ll do it.’ … Isiah’s name never came up during that conversation. He never backtracked and said he didn’t want to do it from that time on, to those of us in the NBA office.”

So, clearly, someone here wasn’t telling the truth.

But we do know that Thomas — despite coming off an 11th straight All-Star season — wasn’t a part of the team. And, well, the varying explanations only point to Jordan’s feud with Thomas being a part of that decision.

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