Jordan has never hidden his dislike for Isiah Thomas. But that didn’t stop him from paying Thomas quite the compliment in the discussion of why Thomas was famously left off the Dream Team for the 1992 Olympics. “I respect Isiah Thomas’ talent,” Jordan said. “To me, if the best point guard of all time is Magic Johnson, and right behind him is Isiah Thomas. No matter how much I hate him, I respect his game.”
Tag: Dream Team
“Before the Olympics, [selection …
“Before the Olympics, [selection committee chairman] Rod Thorn calls me and says we would love for you to be on the Dream Team,” Jordan said. “I said, ‘Who’s all playing?’ “He said, ‘What’s that mean?’ I said, ‘Who’s all playing?’ He says, ‘Well, the guy you are talking about and you are thinking about is not going to be playing.’ It was insinuated I was asking about him, but I never threw his name in there. “You want to attribute it to me, go ahead. Be my guest. But it wasn’t me.”
“I respect Isiah Thomas’s talent,” …
“I respect Isiah Thomas’s talent,” Jordan says today. “To me, the best point guard of all-time is Magic Johnson, and right behind him is Isiah Thomas.” Jordan reaffirms in The Last Dance that he didn’t tell Dream Team overseer Rod Thorn to keep Thomas off the 1992 Olympics squad, though his denial is notably understated compared to some of his other more boisterous pronouncements.
Since Thomas, then one of the most …
Since Thomas, then one of the most accomplished players in the NBA, was left off the Dream Team in 1992, it’s largely been attributed to his poor relationships with some of the players who made the roster, namely Jordan. In Episode 5, Jordan says when he asked Rod Thorn, then the head of USA Basketball, who was playing, Thorn told him, “The guy you’re talking about, who you’re thinking about, he’s not gonna be playing.”
But Rod Thorn, a longtime NBA executive …
But Rod Thorn, a longtime NBA executive who played a key role in assembling the Dream Team roster for the 1992 Olympics, denied ever speaking with Jordan about keeping Thomas off the team. “There was never anything in my conversation with [Jordan] that had to do with Isiah Thomas, period,” Thorn said Wednesday during an interview with ESPN’s Golic & Wingo. “He said, ‘I’ll do it.’ … Isiah’s name never came up during that conversation. And he never backtracked and said he didn’t want to do it from that time on, to those of us in the NBA office. “Now, if that in fact happened, then it happened with somebody else; because when I talked to him, he ended up saying he would definitely do it.”
Thorn was asked why Thomas was not on …
Thorn was asked why Thomas was not on the roster, assuming Jordan had no input. “That’s a good question, because Isiah was a great player, a fantastic player,” Thorn said. “There was some controversy with the Pistons regarding not shaking hands with the Bulls — there was some bad blood, obviously, there. … But when we ended up going with the first 10 guys, he did not end up making the team.”
Reggie Miller Agrees Michael Jordan is …
“In 1980 I was on the Olympic team,” …
“In 1980 I was on the Olympic team,” Thomas said on “Get Up.” “As a matter of fact, I was voted the Male Athlete of the Year in 1980 for the USA Olympic team. The only thing that’s missing from my résumé is not being on the Dream Team. Now, when the Dream Team was selected and I wasn’t a part of it, there was a lot of controversy around it. I still don’t know who did it, or why they say I didn’t make it.
“I know they say the criteria for …
“I know they say the criteria for making the team, I had fit all the criteria. And that’s a big hole in my résumé. That is the biggest hole in my résumé. That is the only thing on my résumé that I did not succeed at….I have succeeded at every level. I tried to do everything correctly and I thought I should’ve made the Dream Team. However, I wasn’t a part of it, that hurt me. And looking back, if I’m not a part of the Dream Team because of a lapse of emotion in terms of not shaking someone’s hand, if that’s the reason why I didn’t make the Dream Team, then I am more disappointed today than I was back then when I wasn’t selected.”
Thomas also said that during the 1988 …
Thomas also said that during the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals, most of the Boston Celtics walked off the floor without shaking hands after losing to the Pistons. Only Boston’s Kevin McHale shook his hand after Thomas had stopped him at halfcourt, Thomas said. “To us, that was okay,” Thomas said. “Knowing what we know now, in the aftermath of what took place, I think all of us would’ve stopped to say, ‘Hey, congratulations. “Of course, we would’ve done it. But during that period of time, that’s just not how it was passed. When you lost, you left the floor.”