Michael Jordan denied he kept Isiah Thomas off the 1992 Olympic 'Dream Team,' but there is evidence to the contrary
Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas.
Fred Jewell/AP Images
May 8, 2020, 6:50 PM
"The Last Dance" has reignited the feud between Michael Jordan Isiah Thomas, particularly over Thomas' exclusion from 1992 Olympic Dream Team.
In the documentary, Jordan denied the long-held belief that he kept Thomas off of the team.
Jordan is on the record as saying he told Thorn not to put Thomas on the team in Jack McCallum's book "Dream Team" and in McCallum's upcoming podcast series about the Dream Team.
There have been disputes about how many other players from the Dream Team didn't want to play with Thomas, with Magic Johnson quoted as saying Thomas "killed" his chances of making the team.
One of the bigger themes of ESPN's docuseries "The Last Dance" has been Michael Jordan's ongoing feud with Isiah Thomas.
Episode 5 of the series covered the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team," which Thomas was conspicuously left off. For years, there has been a belief that Jordan kept Thomas off the team, threatening not to play if Thomas was on the team. Jordan denied that in the series.
"I respect Isiah Thomas' talent," Jordan said in the documentary. "To me, 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."
Jordan said in the series that in 1991 when Rod Thorn was assembling the team, he asked who was playing. Jordan said that Thorn suggested Thomas would not be playing, without ever saying Thomas' name.
"You want to attribute it to me, go ahead, and be my guest. But it wasn't me," Jordan said.
Jordan has admitted before that he didn't want to play with Thomas
Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and Scottie Pippen
on the Dream Team. John Gaps/AP Images
In the 2013 book "Dream Team," author Jack McCallum wrote that Jordan was the primary reason Thomas was left off the team.
Furthermore, in the book, Jordan is quoted as saying he told Thorn not to include Thomas on the team.
"Rod, I don't want to play if Isiah is on the team," Jordan is quoted as saying (via USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt).
McCallum was on ESPN's podcast, "The Lowe Post" with Zach Lowe on Thursday to promote a new podcast series on the Dream Team. McCallum reveals that the series has the audio of Jordan saying he didn't want Thomas on the team.
Lowe, who had heard the series in advance, said: "Michael says that on tape, in his voice! You have him dead to rights."
As Zillgitt wrote, the U.S. was determined to get Jordan on the team.
"With NBA players going to the Olympics for the first time in Barcelona, the league needed Jordan on the team. There was more at stake than just a gold medal. Then-NBA Commissioner David Stern and then-FIBA secretary-general Borislav Stankovic had plotted basketball's global explosion.
"The U.S. couldn't send a team without Jordan. He was a necessity. If Jordan didn't want Thomas on the team — and it didn't matter how many people were on Thomas' side — Thomas wasn't going."
Jordan said in "The Last Dance" that the Dream Team's strength was its camaraderie.
"Would Isiah have made a different feeling on that team?" Jordan said. "Yes."
The source of Jordan and Thomas' rivalry
Former Pistons forward (and later Bulls forward) John Salley said that the rivalry began when Thomas' nephew was wearing a Jordan jersey. Thomas, who is from Chicago, was upset and wanted to prove he could beat Jordan, according to Salley.
"Isiah goes home, and his nephew is wearing a Bulls jersey, a Michael Jordan Bulls jersey... Isiah was mad at that. Not to Michael, personally," Salley said. "In his brain, 'Every time I play against this dude, I'm gonna try to go off so my nephew sees this is the jersey you should wear.'"
In 1985, there was a belief that the Eastern Conference All-Stars, led by Thomas, "froze out" Jordan throughout the weekend. Though Jordan and Thomas both denied it happening, there were reports that players were turned off by Jordan's behavior throughout the weekend, including an alleged incident in which he ignored Thomas in an elevator. Jordan had said he was trying to keep to himself as a rookie and stay in his place, but others reportedly found it conceited.
Then, of course, the Bulls and Pistons met in the playoffs four straight years, from 1988 to 1991. On the fourth go-around, Jordan and the Bulls swept the Pistons, finally defeating there nemeses. Thomas and the Pistons infamously walked off the court with time remaining, refusing to shake hands.
Thomas has said he would do things differently if he had known the negative reaction from the public. Jordan, during "The Last Dance," said he could never be convinced that Thomas wasn't an "a--hole."
Did other Dream Team members want to keep Thomas off the team?
By 1991, Thomas had other feuds around the league. He and Magic Johnson, once good friends, had a falling-out after Johnson's HIV diagnosis.
Isiah Thomas. Amy Sancetta/AP Images
Likewise, though Thomas and Larry Bird had publicly reconciled, they didn't seem particularly close after Thomas said Bird would be "just another good guy" if he were black and not white. The Pistons and Celtics had also had several heated battles in the '80s.
Johnson is quoted as saying in Jackie MacMullan's 2009 book, "When the Game Was Ours,": "Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him" (via Zillgitt).
ESPN's Michael Wilbon recently said on "The Jump" that nine of 12 players on the Olympic roster did not want to play with Thomas.
"I'm gonna say nine of those guys just were not in favor of hanging out with Isiah Thomas at that time, and that's what that summer was, it was a big hangout," Wilbon said. "It was like summer camp ... I'm going to say nine out of 12, they made it known to whomever that this wasn't somebody they wanted in their summer camp."
Wilbon later walked back that claim, reporting several sources said it wasn't true.
Thomas thanked Wilbon for retracting that claim.
Thomas said on ESPN's "Get Up" that being left off the Dream Team hurt him.
"Being left off the Dream Team, that personally hurt me," Thomas said, adding: "The only thing that's missing from my resumé is not being on the Dream Team. 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 said I didn't make it. I know the criteria for selection of making the team, I had fit all the criteria."
Among the many side effects on sports culture of "The Last Dance" has been the re-awakening of a 30-year feud between Thomas and Jordan.
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