Three months into 2025 and basketball fans are eating well. Following Netflix’s sensational Court of Gold documentary chronicling the men’s basketball tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics, HBO released Celtics City this month. It covers one of the most historic franchises in the league’s rich history and it even teased appearances of some of the game’s biggest legends. However, there was one who opted not to participate.
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Isiah Thomas recently made an appearance on SiriusXM’s NBA Radio program. When the subject of Celtics City came up, the famed member of the ‘Bad Boy’ Pistons revealed that he refused to make any sort of appearance in the series. Why? Because of Michael Jordan and how ‘His Airness’ portrayed the him on his now historic Bulls documentary, The Last Dance.
The Pistons and Bulls’ vicious rivalry from the late 1980s/early 1990s was touched on in The Last Dance and Jordan and Thomas gave interviews on what it meant to the NBA. MJ was not shy of his animosity toward Thomas — calling him an “a**hole” and revealing a deep-rooted hatred for him.
Thomas however, didn’t reciprocate that hatred, and was stunned when he discovered the things Jordan had been saying about him on the show. That left a bad taste in the Motor City icon’s mouth and was the ultimate reason why he didn’t wanna do Celtics City.
“They totally set me up and blindsided me,” said Thomas on NBA Radio. “I wasn’t gonna get fooled twice. So I just decided not to participate in the documentary and be able to talk about it. I wasn’t gonna go on film and sit there and potentially be set up against like I was in The Last Dance.”
“I wasn’t going to go on film and sit there, and potentially be set up again”
Hall of Famer, Isiah Thomas, on why he chose not to participate in new doc #CelticsCity@TermineRadio | @JumpShot8 pic.twitter.com/aZkHA8EcW7
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) March 8, 2025
Four years later and Thomas still hasn’t forgiven Jordan for The Last Dance. During an interview on the Draymond Green Show in 2024, he demanded that MJ apologize to him publicly the same way he denounced him publicly.
“This dude got on international television and called me an as*hole. Somebody who’s been really good to him. Until he apologizes on international television, ain’t no conversation.”
It’s a shame. Thomas most certainly would have had some interesting input on his experience playing against the C’s. He certainly hasn’t been shy of speaking about one of the franchise’s most popular legends.
Thomas and Dennis Rodman famously disrespected Larry Bird in the 1980s
Larry Bird isn’t just an all-time Celtics legend, but a staple of what professional basketball was in the 1980s. So when Isiah Thomas and Dennis Rodman made some choice racial comments about Bird in 1987, it certainly struck a chord with the Boston fanbase.
Bird and the Celtics had just defeated Rodman, Thomas, and the Bad Boy Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. Rodman then insinuated that the only reason Bird gets talked about as an all-time great was because he was white. Thomas agreed.
“I think Larry is a very, very good basketball player. He’s an exceptional talent. But I have to agree with Rodman. If he were black, he’d be just another good guy,” said Thomas at the time.
In 2015, Bird admitted that the outlook didn’t bother him, and even claimed that he had heard worse in his heyday. However, if Thomas did appear on Celtics City this quote would have most likely been used, and 100% misconstrued. After Thomas’ experience on The Last Dance, can you blame him for sitting this one out?
