Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan have one of the most compelling and unique relationships in the history of the NBA. Thomas and his Detroit Pistons were the banes of Jordan’s playoff hopes in a few of his early years before he broke through and went on to enjoy the greatest peak that any athlete arguably ever has. This means there was some animosity between the two stars, a lot of which is still apparent 30 years later.
For all that though, it’s not like MJ didn’t work on being on good terms with Isiah, and if John Salley is to be believed, he even loved Isiah. And in an interview with Playboy in 1992, Jordan explained that he had tried to be cool with Thomas but stopped trying after learning that Isiah was speaking about him behind his back.
“Normally, I would smile and enjoy myself, but I was serious the whole game. It was a grudge game from my standpoint. And the next day, the headlines read “Jordan Gets His Revenge, Scores 49.” That’s all Isiah needed to see. It was a competition from that point.”
“I always tried to respect him and be kind, but I always would hear talk that he was saying things about me behind my back. I just said, Well, I’m gonna stop trying to be nice. Screw it. Just play basketball. We don’t have to be best of friends.”
Jordan ended up as the greatest of all time, something that has affected the legacy of a lot of great players from his era, who got overshadowed as a result. Thomas and his Pistons are certainly in that category, so his resentment towards MJ, if there is any, is easy to understand.
In any case, the fact is that Jordan struggled against the Bad Boy Pistons but eventually got over the hump and established himself as the biggest legend in the NBA so far. It’s hard to tell what his feelings about IT are today, but it possibly just doesn’t matter all that much to MJ anymore.
