Isiah Thomas resparks feud with Michael Jordan for being called an ‘a**hole’ in ‘The Last Dance’

Isiah Thomas has resparked his long-standing beef with Michael Jordan in recent comments, blasting the way in which he was portrayed in Jordan’s popular ESPN documentary, ‘The Last Dance’.

Thomas, 61, opened up on the way he felt after watching the production for the first time with Greek NBA rights holder Cosmote TV during the Abu Dhabi NBA games in early October, per EuroHoops. 

‘When I was watching ”The Last Dance,” I’m sitting there, and I’m watching it with my family, and I’m thinking everything is good,’ Thomas said. ‘And then this guy comes on television, and he says that he hates me, and then he calls me an a**hole.’ 

‘And then I proceed to watch a whole documentary about him being an a**hole. I’m like wait a minute, time out. Until I get a public apology, this beef is gonna go on for a long, long time, ’cause I’m from the west side of Chicago.’ 

Isiah Thomas (#11) went toe-to-toe with Michael Jordan (#23), in the late 80 and early 90s

Isiah Thomas and Fabolous attend of 2022 NBA Abu Dhabi Games at Etihad Arena in October

Thomas doesn’t get why Jordan calls him an ‘a**hole’ when he showed similar traits during his playing days

The 10-episode documentary narrates most of Jordan’s individual and collective accomplishments, mostly through the 1990s. At times, however, ‘His Airness’ would show his ‘nasty’ side, picking on Scott Burrell, yelling at his teammates at practice and also punching Steve Kerr in a scrimmage once. 

These are the moments that Thomas is referring to, as well as the sour relationship between the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons, which takes up a huge chunk of Jodan’s documentary. 

‘MJ’ lost three times to Detroit in pivotal moments before going on to win six NBA championships in the space of eight years, including in the second round of the 1988 playoffs, the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals and the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals. 

A Thomas-led Pistons team won it all those last two times they knocked out the Bulls and took a particular approach to clamp Jordan down by never letting him take air, or if he did, then they’d immediately hit him.   

Thomas and the Pistons knocked out the Bulls & Jordan three times before being swept in 1991

In ‘The Last Dance,’ Jordan explained that he used the Pistons’ tactics on him as a source of motivation to add strength and change his game as he further grew into his career. 

As a result of his hard work and determination, the Bulls swept the Pistons in 1991 before eventually claiming their first ring as an organization by beating Magic Johnson’s Lakers in the Finals. The rest is history. 

The beef between Jordan and Thomas started that year too, in 1991, when the Pistons point guard and his teammates famously walked off the court with 7.9 seconds remaining on the clock without shaking any of the Bulls’ hands.

Jordan has denied that his beef with Thomas influenced the decision to leave him out of the ‘Dream Team’ in the 1992 Olympics saying, ‘No matter how much I hate him, I respect his game’ in the last episode of ESPN’s docuseries The Last Dance

The infamous feud between the two basketball greats dates back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jordan pictured left playing against Germany in the summer Olympics in July 1992 in Barcelona and Thomas pictured right dribbling the ball up court against the Chicago Bulls during an NBA basketball game circa 1992

The move was widely criticized in the world of sports and among NBA fans in particular. It also didn’t sit right with Jordan, who brings it up in his documentary for younger generations to learn about it.

Later in the production, Jordan said that if Thomas were on the 1992 Olympics US ‘Dream Team’, the camaraderie and cohesion on the group would have been different due to Thomas’ poor sportsmanship from a year earlier. 

‘The Dream Team, based on the environment and the camaraderie that happened on that team, it was the best harmony. Would Isiah have made a different feeling on that team? Yes,’ he explained.

The Team USA Selection committee that selected that 1992 team backed up Jordan, saying that they never discussed Thomas with him.

‘There was never anything in my conversation with (Jordan) that had to do with Isiah Thomas, period,’ said Rod Thorn, Olympic Committee Chairman, on ‘The Last Dance.’

Dream Team: Larry Bird #7, Michael Jordan #9 and Magic Johnson #15 of the US National Team pose during the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona

The Dream Team pictured above accepting their gold medals following their Olympic win

He said, ‘I’ll do it. … Isiah’s name never came up during that conversation. And he never backtracked and said he didn’t want to do it from that time on, to those of us in the NBA office.’

‘Now, if that in fact happened, then it happened with somebody else; because when I talked to him, he ended up saying he would definitely do it,’ he added. 

However, Thomas said that looking back on his career, he’s hurt that he wasn’t chosen to be apart of the Dream Team. 

‘I tried to do everything correctly and I thought I should’ve made the Dream Team,’ Thomas said. 

Thomas said that looking back on his career, he’s hurt that he wasn’t chosen to be apart of the Olympic squad saying: ‘I tried to do everything correctly and I thought I should’ve made the Dream Team’

‘I don’t know what went into that process. I met the criteria to be selected, but I wasn’t,’ Thomas said

‘I don’t know what went into that process. I met the criteria to be selected, but I wasn’t. 

‘I wasn’t a part of it, that hurt me. And looking back, if I’m not a part of the Dream Team because of a lapse of emotion in terms of not shaking someone’s hand, if that’s the reason why I didn’t make the Dream Team, then I am more disappointed today than I was back then when I wasn’t selected,’ he said. 

Based on his comments from last month, Thomas feels more upset than ever before. 

And the beef goes on…