One of professional basketball’s greatest rivalries will always be Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas. Isiah and the Bad Boy Pistons ruled the NBA for a stretch, winning back-to-back titles in 1989 and 1990. During that run, they knocked a young Michael Jordan and the Bulls out of the playoffs twice, and as expected, Jordan took that personally.
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His Airness and the Bulls finally trounced the Pistons in 1991. Not only that, but Thomas never shook Jordan’s hand afterward, an act many believed was disrespectful. Jordan would go on to win six NBA titles and build a lasting legacy. The feud with Zeke added another chapter in 1992.
That was the year the Dream Team was formed for the Olympics in Barcelona. It featured Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Scottie Pippen, a real lineup of killers. One person who was not included was Isiah Thomas, who to this day blames his rivalry with Jordan as the reason. According to NBA legend Charles Oakley, that rumor can finally be put to rest.
The New York Knicks legend, who balled alongside Jordan for a short stint on the Bulls, spoke about this on the latest episode of The Art of Dialogue. He explained that it was head coach Chuck Daly who was responsible for assembling the Dream Team in the first place.
“Basically, when you have a dream team, Olympic team, something like that, whoever coaches gets a chance to bring one of his players,” explained Oakley. “If Chuck Daly wanted Isiah on there, he probably would have been on there. I don’t think he liked Isiah like that. You hear him to this day talking about something that happened what 1992? He’s still talking about that.”
That sounds absurd but also accurate, considering the reputation the Babyfaced Assassin had built as a Bad Boy Piston. Regardless of the respect he has for Thomas and his game, Oakley said that Thomas continuing to point his finger at Jordan for not being on the Dream Team is completely ludicrous.
“For him to try and blame Mike for this, and blame Mike for not having him on the Dream Team, that is absolutely crazy,” stated the now 61-year-old legend. And that wasn’t the only jab he got on Zeke either. “He was a sore loser,” Oakley added, using that phrase to remind listeners that he never shook Michael’s hand when the Bulls bested the Pistons.
So really, this whole thing circles back to one simple truth: some wounds from that era are never going to fully heal. Jordan and Isiah helped define an entire generation of basketball drama, and the Dream Team snub is just one piece of that decades-long tension. Isiah does seem to joke about it more now. “It seems like it was all just one guy,” he joked during a chat about the Dream Team on All The Smoke. Never change, Isiah.
But hearing Oakley lay it out so bluntly cuts through all the mythology. Sometimes it is not a conspiracy, it is just personalities and old grudges that never fully fade. And as long as Zeke keeps bringing it up, this rivalry is going to live on just as loudly as it did in the ’80s and 90s.
