A few years before Isiah Thomas started arguably the biggest rivalry in the NBA with his arch nemesis, Michael Jordan, he had the strongest bond with his nemesis before Jordan. It was Earvin “Magic” Johnson. After his Lakers lost the 1984 Finals to Larry Bird’s Celtics, the always-smiling Magic couldn’t stop crying, and Thomas was there to console him despite not ever being teammates. Through the mid-80s, they had a bond that transcended basketball, until they met in the Finals of ’88. And Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t help but share the story.
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Before winning their back-to-back championships in ’89 and ’90 the Detroit Pistons lost the Finals against the Lakers and Eastern Conference Finals against the Celtics a year prior. Following that, Dennis Rodman and Thomas commented on Larry Legend being “overrated” because he was “white”.
It didn’t sit well, either with the NBA community or with Johnson, who respected Bird, perhaps more than anyone else. And the latter took it out on IT when he saw him and his team in the Finals the very next year.
When the Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson rivalry started
In a sit-down back in December 2017, Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson remembered when the relationship between the two went sour. Shaquille O’Neal shared the story of the same on his Instagram recently, which called for a throwback.
Shaq puts out Isiah and Magic’s heartfelt interview on his story pic.twitter.com/DlIIXZ0sJx
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) June 10, 2023
They discussed an incident from Game 3 of the 1988 Finals in which Magic and the Showtime Lakers would eventually beat Zeke’s ‘Bad Boy Pistons’ to win their 5th and Final NBA championship.
The Lakers point guard would elbow his opposite number and, in retaliation, “Isiah Thomas got up swinging on Magic Johnson”. Watch the two talking about it and their relationship as a whole in the following YouTube clip by ESPN.
Johnson took almost 20 years to reconcile with his old friend. While that may seem like an eternity at first, Thomas’s actions didn’t demand any less.
Thomas was spreading rumors when Magic Johnson was diagnosed with HIV
When the whole NBA community stood behind the Lakers after the announcement of his HIV diagnosis, his once best friend reportedly questioned his sexuality as soon as the news came out.
Johnson, who even contemplated suicide after the diagnosis talked about it in his book, When the Game Was Ours, and described it as a “kick to the stomach”.
Safe to say Thomas must have been a difficult man to befriend back in the day.
