The team USA squad who will represent the country during the Paris Olympics 2024 was announced in April this year. While it is a star-studded team that is being sent to fight for gold on the global stage, the exclusion of Kyrie Irving stuck out like a sore spot for many. Recently, NBA legend Isiah Thomas shared a clip of Stephen A. Smith comparing the Kyrie snub with what happened to him with the 1992 Dream Team.
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Zeke understands what it feels like to be left out, despite being eligible to be selected. In the clip shared by him on Instagram, Stephen A. can be heard drawing parallels between the two major snubs. The media veteran said that he could never wrap his head around the fact that when a supergroup was assembled in 1992, one of the best players of all time was conveniently left out.
Stephen A. said, “I don’t give a damn about Kyrie or anybody else missing the team when you left Isiah Thomas off of the original Dream Team in 1992. Everything takes a step back to Isiah Thomas, two-time champion, one of the greatest point guards to have ever played the game, a former President of the Players’ Association.”
Isiah Thomas agrees with Stephen A Smith over Kyrie Irving getting snubbed from the Olympics team pic.twitter.com/Tl6tL76TQl
— Ballerz Worldwide (@ballaznba) June 9, 2024
SAS stated that when Zeke was the President, he worked towards diversifying the media that covered the NBA. He was one of the biggest advocates for having more Black representation in the media covering the sport. Despite being such a key figure, he wasn’t included on the team. Stephen A. believes that it was part of a political agenda under which he was cut out from the selection process.
Why was Isiah Thomas not included in the Dream Team?
Thomas’ exclusion from such an iconic time in basketball is arguably the biggest snub of all time. It has been decades since the Dream Team snub, but it’s still debated like it’s a current event. Over the years, several rumors have floated around as people continue to dissect what led to that moment. In 2020, when The Last Dance was released, Michael Jordan was heard saying that he had no role in it. However, other people have a different opinion on it.
Jack McCallum, wrote in his book named after the team, “Isiah Thomas was not a member of the Dream Team primarily because of two men, Michael Jordan and (Detroit Pistons coach) Chuck Daly. If we want to put a finer point on it, it was really one man–Jordan.” McCallum mentioned in his book that when MJ was asked about his interest in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, he stated, “Rod, I don’t want to play if Isiah is on the team.”
So, it’s a classic case of both sides pushing their sides of the story. As unfortunate as it was, Isiah Thomas will always live with the regret that he didn’t play any role in the team that truly helped put basketball on the world map.
