Michael Jordan found himself in Isiah Thomas’s crosshairs yet again this past week as the Pistons legend took to the Draymond Green Show to call out his former on-court adversary. The bad blood between the two has existed for decades on end but took a turn for the worse when MJ called IT an “a**hole” during his ‘The Last Dance’ docuseries. Thomas has since demanded an apology for this, leading to Stephen A. Smith chiming in.
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Thomas was vocal in his statement on Draymond’s podcast regarding the apology. Fuming at the fact that his character was brought into question, Thomas let the world know that MJ calling him an “a**hole” on international television was not something he was fond of in the slightest.
Stephen A. Smith, someone who is in touch with both, took to his show to give Thomas a tip regarding this ordeal. In Smith’s eyes, the Hall of Fame guard should simply move on.
“Simply giving you the facts as I know them to be. Michael Jordan doesn’t give a damn. He doesn’t care if he ever speaks to Isiah Thomas in life again. He’s not fond of him. Period.”
Stephen A. seems to have analyzed their relationship (or lack thereof) to the point where the one between the two appears to be irreconcilable. The former Hornets majority owner rarely ever makes public appearances and less frequent than that are media appearances. He wasn’t even present for the Bulls ‘Ring of Honor’.
If Jordan wanted to repair his relationship with Thomas, he would’ve done so already. Smith may have hit the nail on the head with this take.
What has caused this rift between Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas?
There are a bevy of events that have taken place over the course of 40+ years between the two basketball goliaths that have led to them having a strained relationship. For Jordan, it began when he believed he was frozen out of the 1985 All Star Game as a rookie in a ‘plan’ that was led by Thomas. IT has vehemently disproved of this ever happening.
However, the crux of their ‘beef’ can be attributed to the Bulls-Pistons rivalry from the late 80s to the early 90s. The Pistons beat the Bulls 3 times in the Playoffs in a row from 1988-1990 and did so while implementing the Jordan Rules where they would essentially roughhouse MJ and the Bulls for 48 minutes straight, especially the former.
This rivalry is what led to the “a**hole” comments from the 6x NBA champion. The nail in the coffin was guys like MJ, Scottie Pippen, and others excluding Isiah from the Dream Team. Thomas knew he met the criteria to be selected but wasn’t and understood quickly that there were ‘political’ reasons at play given his entanglements with the Bulls players, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird.
