Thanks to “The Last Dance,” Michael Jordan’s rivalry with Isiah Thomas has become a big topic of conversation in recent weeks. We all knew it was intense, but nobody knew how deep it really went.
Thomas led the Pistons to glory in one of the most controversial runs in league history. Known as the “Bad Boys,” they used physicality to bend the rules and almost literally beat their opponents to a W. Jordan and the 90s Bulls often caught the worst of it and it drove a wedge between Jordan and Thomas that is still prevalent today.
Undoubtedly, the climax was in 1992, when I.T. was mysteriously left off the “Dream Team.” Thomas blames Mike for the snub but recent reports indicate as many as half of the players on that team did not want to play with the 12x All-Star.
David Robinson, in talking about Thomas’ snub, put it quite plainly on Bulls Talk podcast with Jason Goff.
“If you have a reputation and you take pride in your reputation as a ‘Bad Boy’ it kind of means people aren’t going to like you. Can you be that surprised when people say ‘I don’t really want to play with the ‘Bad Boys?’
“When you talk about putting together a team, chemistry matters. It does.”You can’t act like it doesn’t matter and for that team it was clear that was a consideration for all the people involved,” Robinson said.”
He has a good point. At the time, Thomas embraced his reputation and controversial play style. Shouldn’t he also embrace and accept what comes with it?
His snub from the Dream Team was just a side-effect of what came with the same playstyle that won him two NBA Championships.
