The rivalry between the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons was the highlight of the Eastern Conference during the late 80’s and early 90’s. It sprouted another, more intense rivalry, between Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas. Zeke has been vocal about his feelings towards the Bulls, particularly MJ. While IT never liked Jordan, he has always been honest about Jordan’s game, giving credit where it is due.
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While appearing on the sports talk show, ‘The Bounce’, once Thomas recalled feeling “fear” while matching up against the GOAT,
“We was just all scared of Jordan…when you sell me against him, yeah I get a little hot…His regular season average against the Pistons was 37.5 points and then some nights he would get hot.”
Jordan knew pretty well that it was only a matter of time before his Bulls overthrew the Pistons, en route to claiming their seat atop the Eastern Conference. Once Jordan swept the Pistons in 1991, His Airness sat down with Play Boy Magazine to detail his victory over his long-time rivals. Talking about the 1991 series, Jordan and his interviewer had the following conversation,
“Playboy: Could you see the fear in their eyes?
Jordan: Yeah. They couldn’t rattle us. They tried everything to rattle our confidence.
Playboy: Such as?
Jordan: Throwing punches, throwing guys at you, talking shit. So I’m saying, Well, these guys talk trash all the damn time to everybody. Let’s see if they can handle some trash-talking back to them. So I started taking it to ’em”
Jordan and the Bulls would wipe the floor with Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons, as the Bulls went on to win the first Championship of the Jordan Bulls era right after.
Isiah Thomas wants a sincere apology from Michael Jordan
Jordan’s beef with IT has been ragging on for some time now. According to Jordan, Isiah and the Detroit Pistons acted like sore losers during the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, as they walked off the court without shaking hands with the Bulls, which rubbed Jordan the wrong way.
He even pointed out that during the previous playoff meetings between the teams, the Pistons had always gotten the better of the Bulls, however, Jordan always made sure to exchange pleasantries with Thomas. Jordan did take matters a little too far when he called Zeke an “a**hole” on his 2020 docu-series ‘The Last Dance’, with some even hinting at Jordan having a part in IT’s name being struck off the Dream Team in 1993.
Recently, appearing on ‘The Draymond Green Show’, Zeke shot back at Jordan for his slanderous remarks about him, even asking No. 23 to apologize for his comments,
“This dude got on national television, international television, and called me an asshole…Somebody who’s been really good to him. And until he apologizes on international television, we—no conversation.”
Keeping with his reputation, Jordan has yet to issue an apology to Isiah, with most believing that the 6’6″ guard will never apologize to his former nemesis, further solidifying the beef between the two legends.
