Isiah Thomas has been at odds with Michael Jordan for a while now, but that didn’t stop him from showing his fellow Hall of Famer some respect on the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday. Host Dan Patrick asked Thomas to share his Dream Team, and Jordan was somewhat surprisingly on it.
“Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], [Larry] Bird, [Tim] Duncan… Jordan, myself,” Thomas said.
Thomas did wait a bit before naming Jordan, and Patrick wondered if he was thinking about putting Kobe Bryant in that spot.
“I was thinking of Kobe or LeBron [James],” Thomas said. “But it’s like I need a little bit more scoring and balance. And someone that would play well with Kareem and also myself… that’s why I paused.”
Well, Jordan sure isn’t a bad choice if you’re looking for some more scoring. He is arguably the greatest scorer of all time, winning a record 10 scoring titles. To go with that, Jordan won six NBA titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, and one DPOY. He might have had a couple more titles today had it not been for his backcourt partner here.
Thomas won two NBA titles, one Finals MVP, and one assists title. His Detroit Pistons knocked Jordan’s Chicago Bulls out of the playoffs in 1988, 1989, and 1990. The Bulls would get the last laugh, though, by sweeping them in 1991, en route to their first championship. Much of the tension between these two icons stems from those clashes.
The Pistons used the infamous “Jordan Rules” to take down the Bulls in those first three matchups. Part of the strategy was to be extremely physical with Jordan, especially when he was attacking the basket.
That led to some bad blood between the teams, and most of the Pistons players, including Thomas, infamously walked off the court without shaking hands with the Bulls after getting swept in 1991. Jordan never really got over that. He called Thomas an “a**hole” in The Last Dance docuseries.
Also in that series, Jordan denied that he had anything to do with Thomas not being on the 1992 Dream Team. It turned out that he did. Audio of Jordan telling Rod Thorn, then-chairman of the Olympic team selection committee, that he wouldn’t play if Thomas were on the team was shared on The Dream Team Tapes podcast in 2020.
“Rod Thorn called me,” Jordan said. “I said, ‘Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team.’ He assured me. He said, ‘You know what? Chuck [Daly] doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team.’”
All of this didn’t make Thomas too happy as you’d imagine, and he has fired plenty of shots since. Back in March, he claimed the Bulls would have won six titles if you replaced Jordan with Kevin Durant.
Thomas has also called LeBron James the GOAT over Jordan. He went with the latter over James for this Dream Team, though.
Getting back to it, Larry Bird won three NBA titles, two Finals MVPs, and three MVPs. Bird could do almost everything on the court, from scoring to rebounding to playmaking. He was regarded as the greatest small forward of all time before James came along.
Someone who still holds their spot as the best ever at their position is Tim Duncan. Duncan won five NBA titles, three Finals MVPs, and two MVPs. He is one of the best defenders ever, making a record 15 All-Defensive teams. Duncan somehow didn’t win DPOY, though.
Lastly, we get to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who won six NBA titles, two Finals MVPs, six MVPs, two scoring titles, and one rebounding title. Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA’s all-time leading scorer for nearly 40 years before James passed him.
So all in all, this is a pretty good Dream Team. You can obviously make a case for the likes of James, Magic Johnson, Stephen Curry, and so on, but none of those five are out of place.
