For some reason, Isiah Thomas has been often overlooked when talking about the greatest players in NBA history. Gladly for him and his fans, his name is starting to surface again and young fans are starting to realize how good and dominant he was.
Some conspiracy theorists claim that Thomas’ beef with Michael Jordan was not only the reason why he was left off of the Dream Team but also why history-tellers don’t usually talk about him.
Others have tried to find a modern-day comparison for him to try and explain how good he was, and most of them agree that Chris Paul would be the closest guess.
However, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons disagrees with that statement, as he believes ‘Zeke’ was far superior to CP3, going as far as to deem him the best traditional point guard ever:
“There are people who just look at stats and say CP3 is better than Isiah Thomas, but that’s not true. I watched the guy I know Isiah is better than Paul. Probably the best traditional PG ever, he sacrificed scoring in order for Bad Boys to win titles, could easily put up 26-28 ppg,” Simmons claimed in his podcast.
To be fair, Simmons has a pretty good point here. The game was played at a slower pace back in the day, and Thomas always put this team’s success ahead of his personal accolades.
Isiah Thomas averaged 19.2 points, 9.3 assists, and 1.9 steals per game throughout his career, but logged some of the most impressive stat lines for a point guard ever, with games of 24 assists and just 2 turnovers, 30 points and 20 assists, 23 points and 25 assists, 47 points and 17 assists, and 40 points and 17 assists, for example.
Paul’s career averages aren’t that far off with 18.5 points, 9.5 assists, and 2.2 steals per game; so those who compare them aren’t exactly wrong but it feels like the Pistons somewhat held Thomas back as a scorer and that he could’ve been even better suited for modern basketball.
As for us, we’d just like him to get the praise he deservesregardless of his stance on Michael Jordan and his legendary Chicago Bulls.
